Update on Sherman Williams

[DKW 86 7,425]

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/inde...7050.xml&coll=3

Dreaming behind bars: An interview with Sherman Williams

Sunday, July 23, 2006

By THOMAS MURPHY

Sports Reporter

FORREST CITY, Ark. -- He strolls in like he owns the joint.

Sherman Williams, Inmate No. 07520-003, has resided in the Forrest City Federal Correctional Institution for almost six years. He's got at least seven more years of jail time to serve for his conviction on three counts of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and a separate guilty plea for passing counterfeit currency.

Williams bounces in wearing his inmate-issue khaki, chats up the jailer and offers vending machine coffee and sodas -- that he knows he can't have -- to his visitors prior to an hour-long interview with the Press-Register.

Williams plays the amiable host on this steamy summer day in eastern Arkansas, where the federal penitentiary complex squats amid the rice and soybean fields 45 miles west of Memphis. He offers to sit where a photographer can make use of the subdued lighting in the visiting room.

It's hard to fathom how a man can escape the hardscrabble scene of his hometown Prichard, make a name for himself as a high school state champion at Blount and the fifth-leading rusher in University of Alabama history with 2,486 yards, earn NFL riches, then get caught dealing marijuana.

Still cocksure, the man who invented a big-play celebration called the Sherman Shake is now 32 years old. He looks fit enough to shimmy and shake on the field again -- "If I was out now, I'd go give it a try" -- but a series of poor, some would say bewildering, choices snatched that opportunity away.

Sherman Cedric Williams continues to approach life as the master of his domain. The former football star, who won championships at Blount High School and Alabama and played four years for the Dallas Cowboys, is at home on a football field, in a recording studio, at a White House reception, on the mean streets of Prichard, or in a drab prison visiting room. He is seemingly conducting transactions -- verbal, financial, bartering -- and making connections everywhere he goes.

It's in his blood.

"I always considered myself to be a businessman, you know," Williams said. If drugs is a business...

Being a businessman is at the essence of Williams' soul, and at the heart of his legal troubles. His business sense paid off when he fixed neighborhood bikes, mowed lawns and cut hair as a kid back in Prichard. It cost him more than a decade of freedom when he was convicted as the leader of a drug ring, which authorities said supplied as much as 1,000 pounds of marijuana to the Mobile area from 1998 through his arrest on April 21, 2000.

much more

[Raven_tiger 5]

...passing counterfeit currency.

I thought that was restricted to only Mississippi State Football players...

Nick Turner

[PowerI 0]

Sherman Williams was a thug when he played for bammer. I remember his stupid dance after he scored a touchdown, it used to make me cringe with anger. I remember in 93 in Auburn when he scored and was hit with a cup when he was doing his dance. Of course we won that game.

[freebody 0]

So, what's the point? Why give him the press? It seems he has no remorse for his trangression, since he won't even acknowledge his crime. That in itself makes me doubt the sincerity of any intentions regarding motivational speaking or mentoring upon his release. What a waste - let him rot out the rest of his time without the publicity.

[Guest Tigrinum Major]

I read this in the paper while I was at the beach. The thing that struck me was the reporter described his attitude and how he walked around like he owned the place. I just found that an interesting observation.

[sogaaufan 27]

So, what's the point?  Why give him the press?  It seems he has no remorse for his trangression, since he won't even acknowledge his crime.  That in itself makes me doubt the sincerity of any intentions regarding motivational speaking or mentoring upon his release.  What a waste - let him rot out the rest of his time without the publicity.

251142[/snapback]

That's the thing that stuck me first in this. Nowhere does he say that what he did was wrong, or that he made a mistake. You get the feeling that he will start up dealing again as soon as he gets out. Most people in his postion would at least try to turn their situation into something positive. Unless there is more to this story than meets the eye, Sherman is still as big a thug as ever.

[DKW 86 7,425]

So, what's the point?  Why give him the press?  It seems he has no remorse for his trangression, since he won't even acknowledge his crime.  That in itself makes me doubt the sincerity of any intentions regarding motivational speaking or mentoring upon his release.  What a waste - let him rot out the rest of his time without the publicity.

251142[/snapback]

That's the thing that stuck me first in this. Nowhere does he say that what he did was wrong, or that he made a mistake. You get the feeling that he will start up dealing again as soon as he gets out. Most people in his postion would at least try to turn their situation into something positive. Unless there is more to this story than meets the eye, Sherman is still as big a thug as ever.

251273[/snapback]

He is a business man. Drugs is his business. Hey you never know, he might be doing a killer drug biz in jail now.

[Raven_tiger 5]

So, what's the point?  Why give him the press?  It seems he has no remorse for his trangression, since he won't even acknowledge his crime.  That in itself makes me doubt the sincerity of any intentions regarding motivational speaking or mentoring upon his release.  What a waste - let him rot out the rest of his time without the publicity.

251142[/snapback]

That's the thing that stuck me first in this. Nowhere does he say that what he did was wrong, or that he made a mistake. You get the feeling that he will start up dealing again as soon as he gets out. Most people in his postion would at least try to turn their situation into something positive. Unless there is more to this story than meets the eye, Sherman is still as big a thug as ever.

251273[/snapback]

He is a business man. Drugs is his business. Hey you never know, he might be doing a killer drug biz in jail now.

251352[/snapback]

Drugs are his business. Subject/verb agreement... It was driving me nuts in the original post, a second post was too much for me. Sorry.

[DKW 86 7,425]

Scuse me main, I be going all 'streetish' on you.

[Raven_tiger 5]

In that case should it read: Drugs be his business.

[DKW 86 7,425]

In that case should it read: Drugs be his business.

251576[/snapback]

No, Drugs be his bidness...

[abrnfanatc 6]

In that case should it read: Drugs be his business.

251576[/snapback]

No, Drugs be his bidness...

251594[/snapback]

Now that's what I call screet.

[WarTim 3,456]

I wonder how much #20 would charge Montae Pitts for his autograph.

251593[/snapback]

Big difference in a charge of public intoxication and TRAFFICING $MILLIONS$ IN ILLEGAL DRUGS.

But, of course, you already knew that.

[TitanTiger 20,482]

I hadn't even heard of his arrest. I was wondering what he was doing the other day though. What a waste of talent.