Mojo + Cowboys

[WTF-82]

ROY WILLIAMS ARTICLE

http://www.oaoa.com/news/williams_22289___article.html/cowboys_touchdown.html

[Sweetwater Red]

Biggest play of the game

Odessa's own Roy Williams scores first TD with Dallas

October 26, 2008 - 5:47PM

BY JOEL A. ERICKSON

IRVING Roy Williams didn't have many chances to introduce himself to the Dallas Cowboys faithful on Sunday afternoon.

But he still found a way to make one heck of a first impression.

Playing in his first home game since the Detroit Lions traded him to Dallas, Williams scored the game's only touchdown to help the Cowboys beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13-9 on Sunday afternoon.

And he offered the Texas Stadium crowd a glimpse of the personality that makes him so popular in Odessa.

With the Cowboys trailing 6-3 at the end of the first half, Williams ran a fade route to the corner of the end zone, jumped over Buccaneers cornerback Phillip Buchanon and hauled in a 2-yard touchdown pass from Brad Johnson.

"He's a really strong, big target inside the red zone," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said. "We ran a fade route, he went up and got it, and it was the biggest play of the game."

It was Williams' first touchdown as a Cowboy.

Most players would want to keep that football for the mantle. As a Permian graduate who grew up watching Dallas, Williams had extra incentive to keep the ball.

Instead he headed over to the stands and handed the football to Kevin Burnett Jr., the two-year-old son of Cowboys linebacker Kevin Burnett.

Williams didn't know Burnett. He simply saw a kid in the stands.

He has been handing out footballs - and his gloves - for years, even during the four years he spent in Detroit.

One touchdown as a Cowboy wasn't going to change his routine.

"Why would I want to keep that ball when someone else could have it?" Williams asked. "It's not the last touchdown I'm ever going to score."

Dallas' defense limited Tampa Bay to just one field goal in the second half and the Cowboys held on for the win.

Williams had two catches for 10 yards.

Under normal circumstances a two-catch performance would be a bad day for Williams, but he has only been a Cowboy for 12 days. He hasn't had time to learn the playbook.

And with Dallas starting quarterback Tony Romo out with a broken pinkie, the Cowboys have had to limit the deep passes that Brad Johnson throws.

Johnson threw two other passes to Williams. Both were out of reach.

Until Williams learns the Dallas playbook, the Cowboys will continue to use him in situations that showcase his athleticism.

Like the touchdown pass he caught over Buchanon.

"We could have drawn that up in the backyard," Williams said. "That's what I've been doing since high school. Catching the fade."

Williams' personality doesn't seem to have shifted much since high school, either.

After the game most of the assembled press wanted to talk to Williams, and he accommodated every request.

But he wouldn't take off his trademark black cowboy hat.

Not even to talk to Peter King - a senior Sports Illustrated writer and NBC reporter - on national television.

"For him to get his touchdown, it was very important," said his mother, Chris Hill, who was in the stands to watch her son play. "It's a blessing that has come true,"

Williams may have spent the last four years with the Lions.

But he spent four years at Permian. Four more years at Texas.

For a native Texan, playing for the Cowboys fits Williams' personality a lot better than playing in Detroit.

"I've made the full circle, from high school to college to the pros," Williams said. "This is the last step."

Bet on Williams to make this step count.