Kevin Ray Williams, Jr. (born January 25, 1971) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

wide receiver in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

, Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

. He played college football at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

Early years

Williams attended

Franklin D. Roosevelt High School (Dallas) Franklin D. Roosevelt High School is a public secondary school in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas (USA), serving grades 9 - 12. The school opened in 1963Carlos Conde. "School OK'd on condition," ''The Dallas Morning News'', January 24, 196 ...

, where he averaged 17.1 yards every time he touched the ball. As a senior in 1988, he split time between

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

and wide receiver, tallying 100 carries for 995 yards, 10 rushing

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

s, 36 receptions for 757 yards, 3 punt returns for

and 2 kickoff returns for

. He finished his high school career with 111 receptions for 1,997 yards (17.9-yard average), 117 carries for 1,339 rushing yards (11.4-yard average), 21 receiving

s, 14 rushing

s and 10 return

s. He averaged 25.6 yards per kickoff returns and 33.2 yards per punt return.

College career

Williams accepted a football scholarship from the

, where he was the fastest player (4.28 seconds in the 40 yards) in some of college football most talented teams. As a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after ...

freshman in 1990, he was the team's kickoff and punt returner. He registered 10 kickoff returns for 231 yards (23.1-yard average), 13 punt returns for 177 yards (13.6-yard average) and 4 receptions for 64 yards. As a sophomore, he had a breakout season, posting 1,183 all-purpose yards, 36 punt returns for 560 yards (15.6-yard average) and 3

s, 10 kickoff returns for 185 yards (18.5-yard average), 21 receptions for 330 yards and 3

s. He had 3 consecutive games with punt returns for

s, setting a school record and one shy of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

record. Against Penn State University, he totaled 217 return yards (152 yards in punt returns) on seven attempts, including a 91-yard punt return for a

(school record). He was named the

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

player of the year and received first-team All-American and All-Big East honors. He was a part of the Hurricane's 1991 National Championship team. As a junior, he struggled with ankle and knee injuries, including the fact that several opponents chose not to kick to him. He recorded 29 punt returns for 302 yards (10.4-yard average), 4 kickoff returns for 82 yards (20.5-yard average), 40 receptions (fourth on the team) for 457 yards, 2 receiving

s and a 68-yard pass completion for a

. He declared for the

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

after the season.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

In the

1993 NFL draft The 1993 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 25–26, 1993, at the Marriot Ma ...

, the

traded their first-round draft choice (#29- George Teague) and fourth-round pick (#112- Al Fontenot) to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for two second-round picks (#46 and #54- Darrin Smith) and a fourth-round draft choice (#94-

Derrick Lassic Derrick Owens Lassic (born January 26, 1970) is a former American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at the University of Alabama. Early years Lassic attended North Roc ...

). The Cowboys selected Williams with their first choice in the second round. As a rookie, he had a 10.5-yard punt return average (third in the NFC) and a 22.2-yard kickoff return average (sixth in the NFC). His best moment came in the infamous

Leon Lett Leon Lett Jr. (born October 12, 1968) is a former American football defensive tackle and coach who is the assistant defensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). Lett previously played in the NFL for 11 seaso ...

Thanksgiving game against the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

, where he scored all of the team's points (except the conversions) on a 4-yard reception and a 64-yard punt return. In

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, his 26.7-yard kickoff return average ranked fourth in the NFL and was the third highest single-season average in club history. He ranked sixth in the NFC with an 8.9-yard punt return average. He became the first player in franchise history to score a touchdown on a punt and a kickoff return in the same season. He set a team record for combined kickoff and punt return yardage (1,497), breaking Mel Renfro's 1964 mark of 1,435 yards. He also became the all-time team leader in combined touchdowns scored on kickoff and punt returns with 4. He was the first player in team history to score off a kickoff and a punt return in the same season. Also the first player to score career

s on punt returns,

kickoff Kickoff or kick-off may refer to * Kick-off (association football) * Kickoff (gridiron football) * ''Kick Off'' (series), a series of computer association football games * ''Kick Off'' (album), a 1985 album by Onyanko Club * ''Kick Off'' (mag ...

, receiving and rushing. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, he received the opportunity as the starting wide receiver opposite to

Michael Irvin Michael Jerome Irvin (born March 5, 1966) is an American sports commentator and former professional football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 2007, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fa ...

after the departure of

Alvin Harper Alvin Craig Harper (born July 6, 1967) is a former football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins and New Orleans Saints. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the first ...

, but never became the consistent big play complement that was expected from him. He had 38 receptions for 613 yards, 2

s and ranked sixth in the NFC with a 22.6-yard kickoff return average. Against the Arizona Cardinals, he set a club record with 307 combined net yards and had the sixth best single-game receiving total in franchise history at the time, with 203 yards, adding two

receptions of 25 and 48 yards. Against the

, he became the team's record holder for career kickoff return yards and combined kickoff/punt return yards. He set the franchise single-season record for kickoff returns with 49. In 1996, he was limited to only 10 games with a broken foot suffered in a 10-7 loss against the Buffalo Bills. He finished with 27 receptions for 323 yards and one

. In

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, he decided to leave the team via

free agency In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is ...

, after Anthony Miller was signed to take over the second receiver role. Williams speed and return abilities were always valued during his time with the Cowboys, setting the franchise career records for number of

returns (144), number of combined returns (239) and

return yards (3,4616) in just four seasons.

Arizona Cardinals

On July 15,

, he signed a one-year contract as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the Arizona Cardinals, where he played

and was a backup wide receiver. His 59

returns for 1,458 yards set a team single-season record and he also set a team record against the Atlanta Falcons with 207

return yards in a game. His biggest offensive contribution came in week 15 versus the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, where he racked 4 catches for 54 yards. He tied for fourth on the team with 20 receptions for 273 yards and one

Buffalo Bills

On February 13,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, he signed as a

with the Buffalo Bills. He was third on the team with 29 receptions for 392 yards and one

, while also being the team's kickoff and punt returner. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, he tied for fourth on the team with 31 receptions for 381 yards, while also being the team's kickoff and punt returner. He was released on April 14,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

San Francisco 49ers

On July 18,

, he was signed by the

to be the punt and kickoff returner. He wasn't re-signed after the season. He finished his career with 178 receptions for 2,314 yards and 7

s, 167 rushing yards and 2

s, 7,309

return yards with 1

and 2,295 yards and 3

s on punt returns. He gained a total of 12,085 all purpose yards.

NFL career statistics

Receiving Stats

Return Stats

References

External links

Kevin Williams Is A Little Guy Filling Big Shoes For CowboysCowboys’ Best Return Specialists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Kevin 1971 births Living people Players of American football from Dallas American football wide receivers American football return specialists Miami Hurricanes football players Dallas Cowboys players Arizona Cardinals players Buffalo Bills players San Francisco 49ers players Franklin D. Roosevelt High School (Dallas) alumni