[Batpuff]

From 'Governor' to 'Commish'?

By GEOFF HOBSON
March 24, 2006



Posted: 6:10 p.m.

[Image: http://www.bengals.com/assets/homepage/2265.jpg]
Reggie Williams has been mentioned as a possible successor to Paul Tagliabue.David Fulcher, first of the big safeties, is used to big.

He played in the Pro Bowl. The Super Bowl. But when he heard the name of one of his old teammates floated for the next NFL commissioner, he said, “Wow.”

That’s big.

Reggie Williams, the ex-linebacker who was a Bengal for so long that he broke in next to Jim LeClair and was replaced by James Francis, is the name. He spent Friday rehabbing an infected knee and soaking in the idea the day his name surfaced in the Philadelphia Daily News as a possible candidate, according to NFL sources.

“It’s extremely flattering and humbling, especially in this era of sports in a game I have so much passion for,” Williams said from his Orlando, Fla., home. “It was a surprise to me. I’ve talked to no one about it. Really, I’ve just been focused these last two weeks on getting my knee better. I was almost there.”

Williams, 51, is coming off an Oct. 10 double knee replacement surgery, no doubt courtesy of playing 14 seasons on that overgrown pool table called Riverfront Stadium. Just when he thought the hell was over, the infection arrived two weeks ago.

“They said the infection came from an abscessed root canal 20 years ago,” Williams said. “Cincinnati raised its head again.”

Williams’s name has been raised in typical darkhorse fashion, several days after Falcons general manager Rich McKay and NFL executive Roger Goodel led the field in the wake of Paul Tagliabue stepping down after 17 seasons.

And, no, darkhorse isn’t a politically incorrect term because Williams is an African-American. His name shouldn’t be on the list just because he’s a minority. Like Williams said, “I have a body of work. It’s not just arbitrary. There is a body of work out there that has facts that have happened.”

Fact One is that only two men (Ken Anderson and Ken Riley) have played more Bengals seasons. Fact Two is that he’s the only Bengal to ever serve on Cincinnati City Council. Fact Three is that after his playing career he became general manager of New York's World League of American Football franchise before he moved to the world of business at Walt Disney World. He’s heading into his 13th year there and is now the vice president of planning and new development for Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.

“He’d be capable. Look at what the guy has done," said wide receiver Isaac Curtis, a teammate who was here when Williams arrived in 1976 out of Dartmouth and the third round.

“He’s been on both sides of the ball,” Curtis said. “As a player and in management Reggie was always a very serious guy. A student of the game. It’s certainly a good name.”

Williams says he’s not looking to leave Disney, a job he calls “fabulously rewarding.” He’s only been at one job longer. It’s a job where he can quench his desire to help kids realize dreams, as well as stay involved in big-time sports.

At the moment, the Atlanta Braves are holding spring training there. There is Walt Disney World Speedway, several golf courses, and bass fishing in a job that “allows us to work with everyone in the sports industry,” Williams said.

Williams isn’t looking to leave the job, but the job is going to help him rub elbows with the NFL owners next week. The league is holding its annual meeting on site at Disney, just when Tagliabue is going to meet with each owner to talk about his successor. Williams will be there Tuesday at a news conference concerning Disney’s relationship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an NFL club that holds training camp there.

A chance to meet and greet?

“I haven’t been told anything like that,” Williams said. “I don’t know what might happen.”

"The Governor"
Back in the day, Curtis and his mates called Williams “The Governor.” Curtis retired in 1984, but by the time Williams retired in 1989, Fulcher says they were still calling him “The Governor.”

“He would always wave at people or shake their hands,” Fulcher said. “A smart guy, a smart player. He was like Peyton Manning on defense. Always getting people lined up. I say, ‘Wow,’ but when you think about it, it’s not surprising when you think back to what he’s done. You come out of Dartmouth and, well, that’s no fly-by-night school.”

Of course, how big of a gasket would Bengals founder Paul Brown blow if he ever found out a former player is being mentioned as a commissioner candidate? Would the gasket be even bigger if it is one of his own players?

“Oh, I don’t know. I think Paul would be proud,” Curtis said. “Reggie was the kind of player Paul loved. A guy who played smart, an intelligent guy who became successful after he stopped playing. I think Paul would be proud a Bengal was being mentioned.”

Williams, a member of that first team that didn’t have Brown as coach, watched and learned.

“The thing abut Paul is that he was always focused,” Williams said. “He wanted to make systematic, sustained progress, and he had this ability to focus in trying to achieve it. At practice. On the plane. On the bus. Focused.”

Williams isn’t getting immersed in the boomlet. The process may go past July. Candidates will come and go. Williams isn’t going to get drawn into any debates. He was a player during two work stoppages and is now an executive at a company that has some union workers.

“There are always two sides,” he said.

He still has loving scars from Cincinnati. The knees, obviously, and the tussles on city council.

“A (stint) in politics,” Williams said, “makes you ready for anything."

As one of six Bengals who played in both Super Bowls, the ’88 team’s loss to the 49ers jarred him.

“To lose such a close game to the same team we lost to before, it hurt; it hurt badly,” Williams said. “I came back one more year to try to ease some of the pain, but I think it showed me that I was at a point that I had to move on past football.

“I loved the people in Cincinnati. It was hard to leave. But I had to cut the umbilical cord. I think moving into (business) was kind of a catharsis for me.”

His greatest thrill as a Bengal, he thinks, might have been that day in ’76 he was told he made the team.

“It culminated a lifelong dream,” he said.

Now “The Governor” has been linked in headlines that say, “Commish.”

Another dream? “I’ve been so focused on my knee, I haven’t really been able to think about it,” Williams said. “Maybe it’s just another 15 minutes of fame.”