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This is a production of WKNO-Memphis.
Production funding for "Sports Files" is made possible in part
by..
My guest today on "Sports Files" is Carolina Panthers tailback
and former Memphis Tigers great DeAngelo Williams.
♪♪♪
There are some people you simply recognize by one name.
There's Madonna, Prince, Beyonce,
just to name a few.
And in the Memphis area there's DeAngelo.
Everyone remotely associated with the University of Memphis
knows DeAngelo Willams and knows his importance to Tigers
Athletics.
He is the most decorated football player to ever play for
Memphis and is fourth on the NCAA all-time career rushing
list.
DeAngelo has gained nearly six thousand yards in his NFL career
and doesn't seem to be slowing down.
Today the former Tiger and current Panther on his love for
the two teams and his commitment to both next on "Sports Files."
♪♪♪
Hey DeAngelo, great to see you.
Great to see you, too, man.
Thanks for being with us today.
Seven years now in the NFL.
Has it gone quickly or is it slow?
How's the process been?
I was just thinking about this the other day.
It's been a fast process but a slow process,
kind of one in the same because you know,
when you're going through, you're like,
"Oh my God!
"This is taking forever."
And then you look back and you're like,
you're already banged out seven already.
So I have another three years on my contract.
I think they say the life expectancy,
if you will, of a running back in the National Football League
over the course of time is like three or four years.
You've already got seven.
You seem relatively healthy.
How much longer can you go?
I don't know, I don't know.
I don't know how many years I want to put in or how long the
bodys going to hold up.
But I kind of owe all that credit to the preperation I had
going through Memphis because, you know,
Coach West was the head coach there.
We did a lot in preservating the body and that kind of carried
over in the National Football League.
You know, it kind of helps when you've got another running back
back there to take off that added pressure.
And you're talking about, of course,
Jonathan Stewart.
You're closing in on six thousand career yards,
43 touchdowns.
You have another six, I believe, recieving.
How would you grade yourself on your career to date through
seven years?
In my mind, I give myself a C plus but with the opportunities
that I've gotten, I give myself an A minus or B plus because I
hadn't gotten many opportunities in the offense that we're in now
with the two years I've been there so it could have obviously
been more.
But you know, you got to make the best of the opportunities
that you get.
You know, I'm not complaining by no stretch but,
you know, had I got more opportunities,
in my mind that C would have been a A.
Yeah, let's talk about that.
You average 4.9 yard per carry.
That's one of the best per carry averages in the history of the
NFL.
I'm talking of all runningbacks.
I don't get it.
I mean, why are you not getting more carries.
And you're a loyal guy.
You're loyal to Carolina.
You don't complain a lot but have you ever gone to the
coaching staff or the GM and say,
"Listen, I need some more totes."
No, I kind of, I stick with the motto of coaches coach,
players play.
And you know, if they call my number,
I try to make the best of it.
If they don't call my number, you know,
I try to find work else where if it's not blocking or stepping my
receiving game up or while running,
if you will.
But you know, it kind of goes back to,
you know, like I said, making the best of your opportunities.
I, with Jonathan, back there with him being a playmaker as
well and having a play maker now with Cam Newton and quarterback
when he can do things with his legs.
And then having a recieving corner that we have,
you know, there's only one football on the field but
there's seven or eight playmakers on the field.
So, them trying to spread the ball around and by the time you
get back to me, you know, there's not much left.
Speaking of making the most of the opportunities you get,
last game against New Orleans.
Yeah.
210 yards.
You really showcased your skills.
Talk about having that type of a game and also having that type
of a game to end the season to get ready for the next year.
Well, I put all that on the whole lineback.
They did a great job going in because,
you know, New Orleans is hard to win in the Superdome.
And you know, we went down and we didn't put a spanking on them
but we did, you know, rush for a bunch of yards.
And it was, I've had a lot of fun in the Superdome field
playing Tulane back in college, going up there every year and
just having fun.
And to go out the way that we went out with all the trade
speculation and them releasing me at the end of the season.
And with Jonathan being hurt, it allowed me to be that feature
back for the last three or four games.
You know, there's no pressure on you at all so I just went out
and I played my game, you know.
And it's not like I did anything different but as I said before,
you know, I got more opportunities and it gave me
more opportunities to showcase my talent.
You mentioned the offensive line.
We remember all those interviews we did back in college.
You always had an O-lineman or two with you.
You still do that in the NFL?
No, No, you don't bring an O-lineman over?
No, they don't.
They actually interview those guys first.
I remember a rushing performance like that,
they run to the O line and the O lines not too quick to get out
of there.
You know, in college, they rarely ever get interviewed no
matter how many yards you rush for.
But they want to hear from everybody because,
you know, the O line is where, you know,
a lot of the money is made.
You know, those guys play 15, 16 years up there because the life
expectancy is a lot higher at that position than probably any
other position on the field.
So they get just as much airtime as we do.
They actually have more to say than we do,
too.
I don't know if they have more to say than you do.
Okay, here's the speculation.
You've obviously heard the speculation about your future
and Carolina.
Can they afford to keep you and Jonathan Stewart?
Will they do that?
Will they release you?
What information can you give us right now at this time?
Well, I heard via Twitter--
Via Twitter?
Via Twitter.
So you know it's official.
Yeah, oh yeah.
It's official via Twitter.
A bunch of my followers were tweeting me saying that they
heard that the new GM said that I was in his plans,
I was in their plans to keep me.
Well my thing is is I've never really thought about it.
I just know it's not like my career is in jeopardy.
Well, it would be in Carolina.
Well, right, it's just will it be in Carolina or not.
But I can tell you this much.
Whether it's in Carolina our any other 31 of the teams,
they're going to get a hard working runningback and a guy
that plays the game with a chip on his shoulder.
You're also as loyal as you can be.
I mean, there's other guys that may have left for possibily more
money or a better opportunity to win in the post season.
You like Carolina.
You like being there, And the loyalty stands out.
Well, it's kind of one of those things where,
you know, Carolina, they gave me my first opportunity.
You know, they picked me 27.
And you know, there's 26 other teams that thought I didn't fit
their style of play.
Right.
So I mean they was loyal to me in that aspect but I know that
as you get older, you find out that this is a business,
that it's not just football.
A lot of people think that there's more politics in college
sports than it is in professional sports but I beg to
differ.
I beg to differ.
But it just all comes down to, you know,
being loyal to the one that gave you the opportunity.
And you know, so far, they've been loyal to me.
But at the point they give the axe because it's going to be at
some point and my loyaltys going to go with me to some other
team.
I'm not surprised that you're big in to social media and
Twitter.
Talk about that.
With your followers you have fun talking and conversing wtih
them.
I do.
It's funny because this interview kind of spun from
Twitter.
But yeah, it took me a while to get on Twitter.
And once I got on, it's fun.
You know, I get harrassed by fans but I mean,
I harass them back.
So, it's no big deal.
You know, when I'm on Twitter, I'm not playing the celebrity or
playing the big shot guy.
You know, I'm just going to shoot you straight.
You say something about me that's not right,
I'm going to say something about you that's not right.
And it's fun, you know.
You get a lot of social media thugs,
if you will, that come on and say what they want to say.
And they hide behind that computer screen or that
smartphone.
But it's fun though.
It's all in good fun.
It's fun how some of the fans, you know,
they come and they help you out sometime.
Sometime they like, "Hey, he might be right!"
Right, right.
It mostly stems from fantasy owners though,
man.
I was just going to bring that up.
It all stems from fantasy owners,
man.
They get all upset like I drafted me and it wasnt't me
that drafted me.
It was them.
So I just boil it down to bad coaching.
Do you accept, appreciate or have a problem with fantasy
football?
It's a double-edged sword.
It's growing the game by leaps and bounds as far as the numbers
is viewed because-- The give you interest?
Yeah, they interested because they want to see,
you know, this player max out his potential and got X amount
of point to win in a certain game,
you know.
It's women, children and men alike.
You know, everybodys all involved now where it used to be
a guy watching TV with his son and the wife walks back and
forth in front of the TV barking out instructions and he's just
like, "Hey, I'm watching the game here."
You know, it went to that from all of them sitting down
watching the game together.
So I mean, that's the good part about it.
The bad part about it is is like there's so many avenues to reach
out to your favorite player or this player that you drafted in
fantasy football and they kind of express their dislike of
their performance for that week.
Okay, let's talk a little bit about your alma mater,
the University of Memphis.
You've given money.
You've given time.
It's very, very important to you.
It's still very important to you.
very, very important.
This whole thing kicked off through the University of
Memphis, you know, and Randy Fichtner sat down in my living
room who's now with the Steelers.
And he told me, you know, you can come to this university and
you can make some things happen.
And then Coach West sat right behind him and he said,
'I'm not saying that you're going to come in and you're
going to start but you can make a difference at this level and,
you know, you can get significant playing time,
you know."
And that's where, you know, I kind of evolved from is that
conversation because at that time,
Memphis hadn't been to a bowl game in 32 years.
And he could have sold me dreams and hopes and all sort of stuff
but he didn't.
I mean, he told me the truth and I love that in him when other
colleges sat there and told me, "Hey,
you're going to be the starter and you're going to be this,
you're going to be that."
And I remember vaguely one school coming in saying that,
you know, you'd make a great DB and I was like,
DB, did you see the last game?
"The last I had thrown 26 yards on me and six touchdowns and you
want me to play defensive back?"
But yeah, I mean, it started here at the University of
Memphis and I'm always in debt to the university.
You're the perfect example for coaches whether it's Justin
Fuente or coaches moving forward to sell to recruits the perfect
example of a guy who could have went somewhere else,
could have went and played in the SEC,
played at Memphis, went on to the NFL and has put together an
incredible career, that it can be done at any school in any
program.
Yeah, whenever I talk to people, like if you watch Monday Night
Football or you watch Sunday Night Football,
if you watch those football games where they're primetime
and you hear these people announce their university,
I mean, it's just as many guys from the SEC as it is from the
Troys or the University of Memphis Ds,
mid-level or lower-tier schools, if you will,
by media representation, not by mine because I think Memphis is
a big program.
And I mean, I know Coach Fuente is going to get this program
back on track.
We won three in a row there at the end.
I keep close attention to the football.
You sure do.
I do.
I even went to the game out in Duke and sat there for the whole
game.
And you know, I had an opportunity to talk to Coach
Cutcliffe because he recorded me at Ole Miss when he was the head
coach there.
It all comes around, doesn't it?
Yeah, it all comes around, you know.
And he was just like, "Hey man, I didn't know you was over
here."
But you know, I got a chance to talk to the team and some of the
players and stuff to see how, you know,
everything was going on the team and I told them.
I said, "You know, this, the money that I'm donating is not
for, you know, anybody else but this locker room because I
remember sitting in here as a student athlete thinking,
'Man, you know, it'd be nice if we had some TVs or if we could
just stay over here a little bit longer and hang out.'" So coming
from a student athelete that's been in that poisition before,
I kind of knew the needs of the players that were currently
there now.
The Big East, I don't know how much you've been following this
but Memphis-- Obviously you know there's no Big East.
It's not going to be the Big East that we know from before.
But still, I would imagine you think this is a major step up
for the University of Memphis, especially the football.
The basketball is going to be fine no matter what but for the
football, more exposure.
It's huge, it's huge.
We needed the exposure.
I mean, we got plenty of exposure when I was here but and
then we went to another bowl game there after.
We're getting there.
I know we're getting there.
It's, you know, we just got to stick to a coach because we
can't keep firing coaches left and right because,
you know, they get their guys in a different offensive system.
You know, it'll take three or four years to get a program
turned around because, you know, you're still dealing with the
kids that were there before that don't quite fit your system.
Right.
But they have to go through the system because they were a
scholarship player.
So, it's kind of one of those things to where,
you know, we as a university have to believe in the coach
that we sign and hold him to his contract instead of cutting him
out early.
Out of all the great accomplishments that you
produced at Memphis on the field,
what's the one single greatest accomplishment in your opinion?
You broke all kinds of records.
You're one of the greatest runningbacks in the history of
college football.
Is there a game, a moment that stands out?
The moment in the last bowl game when we were in Detroit.
Motorcity Bowl.
The Motorcity Bowl and Coach West wouldn't let me go in in
the fourth quarter after we took the lead and they were coming
back or have you.
And we ultimately ended up winning that game.
But the moment when we dumped the ice on him,
it set in that this is my last collegiate game.
Mhmm.
And it stung so bad.
I cried to the stadium that day through walk through,
when we were going through the pre-game I was rying.
And I was like, "I can't figure out why I'm crying."
I didn't cry when we won the state championship my high
school year.
I didn't cry any that year or any my whole high school career
because I knew I was going on to play collegiate football but I
knew I had an opportunity to play professional football.
But that's just how much I knew that I was going to miss the
city of Memphis, the University and the people that I've become
to call friends.
Must be a nice feeling to be known as the greatest player to
ever play for the University of Memphis.
I don't know about that.
I don't know about that.
A lot of people that would say absolutely.
DeAngelo, we got you off of the hotseat but I want to ask you
five quick questions.
It's called "Five for the Road."
Just give me quick answers.
You can't say the Carolina Panthers.
What is your favorite professional sports team?
Favorite professional sports team,
hmm..
Memphis Grizzlies.
There you go!
I was going to give you the hint on that.
Favorite athlete of all time.
Favorite of all time would have to be..
Who's psoter did you have on your wall?
I mean, was there somebody when you were a kid hat you
emmulated?
Jerry Rice.
Jerry Rice.
Favorite musician, rapper, singer,
music group.
Who do you listen to?
Who's your favorite?
That's easy, Bob Marley.
Bob Marley.
Yeah.
Just saw the tribute to Bob Marley the other night on one of
the award shows, might have been the Grammys.
I listen to soft rock and reggae.
It's all I listen to you.
That's the hair-do?
Well, it didn't come from the hair.
It's like, you know, it keeps the smile on my face.
Favorite movie of all time?
Favorite movie of all time, Texas Chainsaw Massacre-the
remake.
Are you kidding me?
Serious.
Favorite TV show of all time?
Favorite TV show of all time is "Spartacus."
Love it.
Yeah.
DeAngelo, always good to see you.
Thank you so much for being with us.
No problem.
And we'll be back with Overtime right after this.
Normally, ice and the MidSouth is not a likely pairing.
Unless it's in your glass of sweet tea.
But if you look hard enough you can find some.
And when you do, you'll find the Ole Miss Rebels men's Ice Hockey
Team.
The Ice Rebels is a team made up of passionate young men who pay
over a thousand dollars a piece just to be a part of the show.
There are no scholarships offered,
just a chance to play hockey.
This year the Rebels qualified for the Nationals,
which take place next week in Missouri.
Quite an accomplishment.
Earlier this week I met up with the team at the Mid-South Ice
House in Olive Branch and had a chance to chat with head coach
Kristian Skou to find out more about them.
Kristian, quite an accomplishment.
Just the fourth year of existance for Ole Miss hockey
and you're going to the nationals for the first time.
Talk about achieving that.
Well, it's something we're very, very proud of.
Like you said, it's our fourth year and to come as far as we
have as fast is really unheard of.
Our first year, we had 11 skaters and lost pretty much
every game that year.
But with help of good recruiting,
we really have brought in a lot of quality players especially
from the known hockey areas, Saint Louis.
We've got kids from Philadelphia area,
from up north where it's a lot more prevalent than down here.
Exactly.
And that really has helped us achieve the success we have.
It's a young team so that also helps what they don't know.
Oh yeah, we're not supposed to do this yet.
Exactly, exactly.
And we play.
We use that to our advantage and this year,
it all fell together.
It was a tough road but because guys really worked hard and
they're rewarded for it.
And that's something I'm very, very happy for.
You'll head up to Springfield, Missouri for the nationals next
week.
Would winning the tournament and becoming the national champion,
would that be a great upset?
Are you expected to do well in this tournament?
No, we weren't even expected to qualify.
It would be a Cinderella story to say the least.
Everything you read, we are expected to lose all three games
handedly.
But that's part of the fun.
That's why you play the game.
We were supposed to do that at our qualifying in regionals a
couple of weeks ago.
We were supposed to lose games there and still found a way to
win.
So, it would be a Cinderella story.
We have the team.
We have the talent.
We'll just have to play the game and see how they work out.
Tell me about your team.
What makes them so succesful this year?
Is it more of a defensive oriented group?
Do they score a lot?
Tell me about them.
We're very well rounded.
We've got three great goaltenders that we can use.
And we're very, very deep.
We had some key injuries.
Within two weeks, we had one player out with a broken foot,
one with a broken ankle, one with an MCL tear,
one with a dislocated shoulder.
All four of them were players who normally played significant
minutes of ice time.
But because of our depth, we were able to weather the storm,
come back the second semester and really have a good second
half of the season which helped us get there.
Because of our youth and the energy,
we're very fast.
We score.
Our defense is where we still need a little bit of work but
it's one of the biggest things that has improved especially
from last year which is one of the reasons we're more
successful this year.
Ice hockey is a club sport at Ole Miss.
In fact, it's a club sport throughout the SEC but just
about everybody has a team, right?
So, how many hoops do you gotta jump through to get these guys
on the ice to be able to deal with classes and getting out of
classes for the nationals because it's not a sanctioned
sport with the school and it's just a club sport?
How hard is that?
It's very hard especially for players.
They put in pretty much as much time as any varsity player does
but they don't have some of the benefits.
They don't have the extra tutors.
They don't have the preferred scheduling as far as getting
classes first.
They have to balance out.
They have to make sure they study while on the road.
We do try to set up a study hall to make sure the guys keep up
their grades because even though we're a club sport,
we still have to play under the ACHA which is our governing body
for club hockey in the United States.
You still have to keep a minimum GPA requirement.
You still have to be enrolled in a certain number of classes and
it's a lot to deal with.
As far as leaving for games and stuff like that,
it's all up to the teachers.
We've been fortunate that there hasn't been that many problems
this year but there have been a couple players that had to pick
and choose which games to miss because of their accumulating
too many absences.
Your connection to this team-- Well first of all,
you helped create this team.
But second of all, you're not from here.
You're not from the states.
Where are you from?
Tell everybody your story and how you got connected with this
team.
I'm from Copenhagen, Denmark.
I grew up there, played hockey my whole life.
Was fortunate to have success playing there.
My father was in the Danish military and was transferred to
the US which was my plane ticket over here.
I then, as soon as the plane landed,
I moved an hour away and played hockey there in Ohio.
Then played two years in Tupelo, Mississippi.
And the team disbanded and I decided to stay,
start a family, do normal everyday thing.
Right.
Then heard buzz about Ole Miss starting a team and called the
head founder, Cody Johnson.
He was still in the development phases.
So Cody, I and one of my assistant coaches,
Colin, the three of us made it happen.
Put in a lot of hours over the summer and we had a team.
How do you find players?
How do you recruit players?
There's a couple websites, recruiter websites.
We call and e-mail pretty much every single high school league
and junior league which is a level you can play after high
school.
It doesn't interfere.
You're not paid so it doesn't interfere with your college
eligibility.
We recruit.
We send, like I said, blanket e-mails and say,
"Look, if you guys have any interest,
please let us know.
"Come down here, have a great college experience.
"We feel like we can offer one of the best college experiences
in the country and you can still play the sport that you love to
play.
"We've got a great team.
"We've been successful fairly early on."
And I think that helps.
And we bring them to the campus and usually if we can get them
to campus, they're usually hooked.
We bring down.
We don't bring them down in December when it's cold.
We try to bring them down in the spring.
We got it.
It's coming up actually the week after nationals.
They'll be coming down and they get to see the campus and the
scenery.
And they usually fall in love with it.
And if it's anything like SEC football and baseball and
basketball, just as competetive.
We wish you nothing but the best in the nationals.
It was great meeting ya and great seeing the team.
Thanks Kristian.
Thank you.
Last Saturday here on WKNO, the TSSAA division II state
basketball championships took place.
In an all Memphis final, Lausanne defeated ECS 67-43 to
capture the D2-single A title.
Cameron Payne, the Murray State bound senior,
led the Lynx with 22 points.
He would also capture a Mr. Basketball award.
In the D2-Double A Championship Briarcrest lost a heartbreaker
to Nashville Ensworth 87-77 in overtime.
The Saints led for most of the game but Ensworth rallied beind
star guard Corn Elder.
For Briarcrest, future Memphis Tiger and Sports Files guest,
Austin Nichols went off for 42 points in his prep swan song.
28 coming in the first half.
Nichols also was named a Mr. Basketball winner for a second
straight year.
Tomorrow, the Memphis Tigers men's hoop team will close out
the regular season with a senior day tilt versus UAB at
Fedexforum.
Next week is the Conference USA Tournament in Tulsa where
Memphis will once again be the favorite.
And next week on "Sports Files," I'll bring in several members of
the media to toss around questions concerning the tigers,
including expectations for the post season.
And that will do it for now.
Remember you can see any of our past shows by heading to
WKNO-dot-org and clicking on KNO Tonite.
And we'll see you next time.