INDUCTION INFORMATION: This is one in a series of features on Louisiana Tech's 2021 Hall of Fame Class. The induction ceremony will be held Friday, Oct. 7 inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court (was postponed in 2021). Tickets are still available to the event for $50 per ticket or $400 for a table of eight. They can be purchased HERE. For more information, contact Championship Resources assistant Tyler Ross at 318.497.7265 or at tross@latechalumni.org.
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When he was scooting all over south Louisiana football fields like his little-boy idol Barry Sanders, water-bugging his way to touchdowns as a running back and making tackles as a safety for the Bayou Lafourche Raiders, the good ol' silver and black, down there in Napoleonville, Tramon Williams never heard the first person question his size as an athletic limitation.

Maybe because he was only 5.

First as a three-sport star at Assumption High, then to walk-on-turned-all-conference-cornerback at Louisiana Tech, and finally as an undrafted free agent to All-Pro corner to Super Bowl champ with Green Bay and 14 years in the league, Williams in his mind just kept being a Bayou Lafourche Raider.

Run. Tackle. Have fun. Help the team. Repeat.

Whether "the important people" paid to notice such things didn't think he could do it or didn't think about him at all, Williams, who filled out at 5-11 and 190, just kept doing what he does, which was more than enough to earn him a spot in the Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame.

"I feel I proved to be everything I thought I was and my peers knew who I was," Williams, ever lighthearted and easy, said. "To the people who may have missed it, that's OK. The right people like my mom and dad who supported me and my older brother who I watched and did everything he did, they always knew. And I knew."

Nobody's fault. No one to blame. Turns out it had to be like this.

"There just weren't a lot of scholarships given out in my hometown," he said. "Not a lot of people knew what an NFL player from Napoleonville looked like."

Some people urged him to walk on at Nicholls State but, "nothing against south Louisiana, but that was too close to home," he said. "I wanted to get out and see new things. I had bigger dreams."

They all came true. And they started in Ruston.

"That's where my life really got started," he said. "Everything circulates back to what I did and who I met at Tech. The backboard on our basketball goal in the backyard where we play with the kids, it's got the Tech logo on the center of it.

"It was a special place for me. It still is."

He came to Tech with his best friend since kindergarten, Brandon Wilson, to study engineering.

"He and my brother became engineers," Williams said. "I got here and took a turn."

He watched the Bulldogs all fall. He went to class. He also went nearly every day to the intramural center for pickup basketball. Played flag football. The Bulldog football team had games and workouts; so did Williams.

He was, after all, the MVP of the district track and field meet in high school, the star of his 13-1 high school football team, and all district in hoops. "I played 1 or 2 but if they needed me to go to the post and guard a 6-8 guy, I could do that too," he said. "I just had 'that dog' in me."

In the spring, "that dog" in him headed to the fieldhouse for a football tryout. Four years later, he was all conference. That's how good of an athlete he was.

But he wasn't quite good enough to date the Lady Techsters star guard, Shan Moore of Minden. Different ballgame.

"Getting her to go out was the tough part," Williams said. "I'm not gonna lie to you. She made me change my strategy a little bit, put in a lot more time. Tougher than playing corner for sure."

Basically, he was a walk-on all over again.

Eventually, she said yes — "that dog" in him again? — and the two married and have shared Williams' NFL career. They also share Tramon Jr., 12, and Trinity, 10. Since Shan was the 2007 WAC Player of the Year, a legit question is this: Williams is a remarkable athlete, but is he even the best athlete in his own family anymore?

"I will say this humbly," he said, laughing, "but I think I've got a strong case for myself."

Williams has always been good about making a case for himself. The practice squad of the Green Bay Packers in 2006 was his launching pad. In 2007, he was on the team and would be for the next eight seasons that included seven trips to the playoffs and a Super Bowl win over Pittsburgh, 31-25, Feb. 6, 2011 in Arlington, Texas.

In that Super playoff run, he had a game-saving interception against Philadelphia, two interceptions including a pick six against Atlanta, and had six tackles and a pass breakup against the Steelers.

He and Shan and the children were together the whole time, including the times he was a Cleveland Brown, an Arizona Cardinal, and a Baltimore Raven. But 10 of his 14 NFL seasons were as a Packer.

"I'll always be part green and gold," Williams said.

He knew when it "was time."

"It's not that you're not good enough anymore," he said. "Eventually, the team has to move on. It's not so much that you get older as it is the game gets younger."

He retired on March 16, 2021. His 38^th birthday.

His brother Ted is an engineer in Dallas. His best friend and Tech grad Brandon is an engineer in Houston, where the Williams family lives. Things sort of worked out for the walk-on.

"Truthfully, any Hall of Fame never crossed my mind," he said. "I never got into the game thinking of going to the Hall of Fame. It was hard enough just getting recognized for the ability I did have. All that is why I had to go on the journey I had to go on.

"I left the game at 37; that's not normal for a defensive back in the NFL. I didn't have any surgeries my whole career; I was very lucky. I wanted to retire and still be able to run around with my wife and kids. It's awesome to be able to do that."