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What he did makes little sense to many of us . . .
As you know by now, Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams was arrested Thursday night at LaGuardia Airport for criminal possession of a weapon. He tried to board a flight with a pistol, which is legally registered in Alabama, but not New York. It was not loaded.
Why would he do this?
Because he just turned 22. He’s a kid.
That sounds like I’m making an excuse for him. I’m not.
But I’ve talked to him, been around him. It’s like talking to a kid, and not just because he wears braces.
Some 22-year-old people are wise beyond their years, some aren’t.
Williams comes across as very young.
Remember, he started just one year at Alabama, so it’s not like he was a three- or four-year college starter who grew up fast because of the intense spotlight three or four year major college starters are under. Just one year. He was an afterthought his first couple of years at Alabama. It was a meteoric one year rise.
He’s not like C.J. Mosley, a three-year starter at Alabama, and a four-year player.
Not only was Williams just a one-year starter, but he came out early, after his junior season.
This guy is very raw and green on- and off-the-field.
Once again, I’m not making excuses for him, just dealing with the reality that we are talking about a young guy who has a lot to learn, in football and life.
And what sometimes happens with Alabama players under Nick Saban, is once they leave his police state, loaded with strict rules, they let their guard down. How many former Alabama players either got in trouble after they left Tuscaloosa (Rolando McClain, Reuben Foster, Marcell Dareus) or were first-round disappointments (Eddie Lacy, Trent Richardson).
It’s almost with Saban’s foot off the players collective neck, they sometimes become less disciplined and focused, in life and football.
It’s like people we know who went to a private, stict religious high school, and then went off to college and sewed their wild oats. I had a friend of mine like that in college. Strict Catholic high school, partied too hard as a freshman and sophomore in college, and flunked out.
So with New York’s strict gun laws, could Williams be looking at a jail sentence?
I asked a friend of mine who is a Queen-based attorney, what kind of punishment Williams could be looking at?
He told me: “Absolutely no jail time for sure, but they can’t decline to prosecute because it’s high profile. Expect some negotiated plea that will involve community serve with a conditional charge – stay clean, and do you service, and it will be dismissed in 6 months to a year after the plea.”
Look whether you hate guns or not, some of us might understand why a weathly football player from Birmingham, Alabama, a very dangerous city, would want to protect himself. Recently, Mississippi State WR Derunnya Wilson, who went to Quinnen’s high school, was shot at killed in Birmingham.
But why would Williams try to board a flight out of NYC with a Glock 19 Pistol? That flies in the face of most of our sensibilities.
Because has very, very young and naïve.
Not an excuse, just trying to explain something that many of us find inexplicable.
Fellow Southern Joe Douglas needs to have a long talk with Williams, and make it crystal clear that the gun culture up here is way different than down South.
March 6, 2020
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