For Brandon Williams, the Ravens’ third-round pick, everything’s coming up roses.
Or maybe it’s just that anything would smell better than his old job.
The rookie nose tackle will never be offended by the smell of an NFL locker room, since his last job was hauling and moving portable toilets.
“Sometimes, you got a little poop on you,” Williams said, via Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun. “Every time I was doing that, I said to myself, ‘I gotta work harder, I’m not doing this the rest of my life.’ It motivated me to get better.”
That’s a relief to the Ravens, who think they found a steal with the 94th overall pick.
The 330-pounder from Division II Missouri Southern tried to take his mind off his old job by pretending the Porta Jons were offensive linemen, saying: “I acted like I was playing football. I just made it fun.”
That approach was not lost on his college coach Darryl Daye, who said Williams’ work ethic set him apart from others.
“We like to say, ‘Brandon is crap house strong,'” Daye said. “No job is too small for him. He’s what you want your son to be like: honest and true blue, a pleasure to coach. Brandon came up really rough, but he never let anything stand in his way. His mother is a very old-school, stern woman who raised him to be a Christian and to always have that humble mentality.”
His mother worked two jobs to support the family while he was growing up, and Williams said he wanted to repay the favor.
And if that means never having to work at a job that stinks, all the better.