Former Chiefs running back Damien Williams opens up about sitting out 2020 season

Sixty-seven NFL players sat out the 2020 season because of COVID-19 concerns. That list included a trio of Chiefs: offensive linemen Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Lucas Niang, along with running back Damien Williams.

Williams’ reasoning was two-fold as he also wanted to care for his mother who had Stage 4 cancer.

The Chiefs in March released Williams, who scored a pair of touchdowns and rushed for 104 yards in Super Bowl LIV. He later signed with the Chicago Bears, and had his first news conference this week.

Williams was asked about sitting out the 2020 season and two things stood out. One, he hoped the season would be shortened by the pandemic and two, missing football rekindled his desire to play.

“I did it for my mom ... and everybody understood why I did it,” Williams said. “But once you got into the season and watching, me personally, I’m sitting at home like I hope the season don’t go all the way through, especially with the COVID things and I won’t feel like I missed too much. But being at home and watching it, it really made me feel like this is something I want to do as long as possible until the wheels fall off. So I knew I wasn’t ready to sit down at home.”

Williams, 29, wants to play for as long as possible so he was happy to find a new team that had an offensive scheme similar to what he knew with the Chiefs.

Bears coach Matt Nagy previously was an offensive coordinator for Chiefs coach Andy Reid.

“Sitting out a year and then coming back, I really didn’t want to learn a whole new system, different things like that,” Williams said. “So coming here and kind of having the same system, same plays, it was easy for me. And then meeting the coaches, meeting everybody in the building, it was just easy for me.”

Williams said speaking with Nagy was comforting.

“Nagy, he came from the same system, the same place that I did,” Williams said. “So we had a talk. I’m going to use you just how you were used in KC as far as putting me out wide, running the ball, just coming here and being a football player.”