Ian Williams played defensive tackle at Notre Dame from 2007-2010, recording 13 tackles for loss for the Fighting Irish before being signed by the San Francisco 49ers in 2011.
Williams signed as an undrafted free agent, yet worked his way up to a defensive captain on the squad in 2015. An ankle injury led to his release by the 49ers in 2016 that resulted in an injury settlement.
Williams bad ankle might not have let him continue playing professional football, but it didn’t stop him from marching and making his voice heard over the weekend.
From Eric Hansen’s piece in the South Bend Tribune:
“I saw an interesting meme on Instagram the other day,” Williams said. “So we all studied the Civil Rights movement. We all studied slavery. We’ve all sat there and thought about what we would do if we lived in that time.
“Well, we’re doing that right now. Whatever you’d be doing then, we’re doing now. So I want to be able to tell my kids, ‘I wasn’t sitting at home watching TV, scared to go out, scared for my life. Didn’t want to risk anything for other people.” – Ian Williams
On his racist encounters while attending Notre Dame:
“Certain instances happened on campus when you were called the N-word,” he said. “‘What is this N-word doing at my party? Get this N-word out of here. No drinks for the N-words.’ It’s been multiple instances, and you just let stuff slide.
“I can’t fight you and get thrown out. I can’t mess you up, because your parent probably donates and probably paid for one of these buildings over here. So I can’t split your lip and I’m just going to let you be.” – Ian Williams
Williams went on to applaud the current Notre Dame students and players for speaking up on the issues in our society today. If you’ve got the time it’s worth your time to see what Williams went through at a place we probably like to think such things don’t happen at.