Sports

After blood clots and a stroke, Mike Williams returns to Texas and finds old memories

Nairavoice · Sep 24, 2026 · 8 min read

AUSTIN – Mike Williams came home last week.

And he’d like to return more often.

The former All-American offensive tackle at Texas, who was on the ground floor of the Longhorns‘ rebirth as a national power in Mack Brown’s first recruiting class, loved every minute of his homecoming.

When he walked into Royal-Memorial Stadium last Friday as one of 13 new inductees into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor, the warm memories came flooding back, washing over him like a tidal wave of emotions.

He remembered it all from a quarter of a century ago.

Showing up at Texas and curiously recruited as a defensive lineman. Coming to Austin even though he’d made up his mind he was going to Baylor. Recalling the week he and his teammates and coaches struggled to come to grips with the tragic vehicular death of defensive lineman Cole Pittman in 2001. Playing for Mack Brown and loving the family atmosphere the head coach created.

Heck, he still remembers Brown coming to his home and being so comfortable that the coach sat on the floor, his back against the couch. “How could I not go to Texas?” he said.

“It’s been 24 years since I was there, and it all came back,” said the 46-year-old Texan, who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., with his wife, stepchildren Dawson and Macy and daughter Mia. “The stadium has changed completely. I was driving on campus and told my family this is where I played, that’s where I went to class.”

It’s where he may go to class again.

When Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte called last June to tell Williams he was to be a part of the 2026 Hall of Honor class that also included fellow football players Lawrence Sampleton, Malcom Brown and Jackson Jeffcoat as well as three-time Olympic gold medalist shot putter Ryan Crouser and four-time All-American softball pitcher Blaire Luna, he asked him if he’d gotten his degree.

Alas, Williams had to admit he hadn’t completed his sociology degree with a minor in business. But he will, at least online.

He jokes that he has a niece named Jada and a nephew named Emory who currently go to college at Oklahoma and Texas A&M, respectively. “I failed somewhere,” Williams said.

The weekend of festivities, surrounding Texas’ win over UTSA on Saturday, rekindled all the heartfelt emotions within him and renewed his perspective.

Williams told the Houston Chronicle that Del Conte kidded him and said Texas can’t have a Hall of Honor inductee who didn’t have a diploma. That stirred something within the former first-round pick of the Buffalo Bills.

He’s long since stepped away from the NFL after four injury-filled seasons with the Bills and a short one-year stint with Washington. His career was cut short by an occurrence of blood clots that led to his retirement.

He has no regrets but with one exception.

“I wish it could have been longer,” he said. “Buffalo was great. I love me some Buffalo.”

His shortened time there didn’t leave him embittered. Instead, it emboldened him to better understand adversity and the need to respond positively. That’s a lesson he frequently shares with his 13-year-old daughter Mia, who is a budding wrestling star and is aiming for the 2032 Olympics. He learned from a series of medical setbacks to listen to his body rather than to just push through the pain.

“It taught me a lot that I can impart to Mia,” Williams said of his daughter, who took up Brazilian jujitsu at age 7 and was once asked to join her middle-school football team as a running back. “I’ve told her to be like Wonder Woman. She can be as girly as can be, but when she steps on the mat, her mentality fits her nickname, which is Pit Bull. She is not mean, just hyper-focused.”

So was Mike who had more than his share of calamity. It started when he learned he had blood clots in his calf in the 2010 offseason after he’d started eight games for Washington.

His problems began when he started having trouble breathing. His right calf hurt. His heart was racing. He thought about the criticism he received when some said the 6-foot-6, 345-pounder was just out of shape. Typical overweight lineman, some sniped.

“I’d been out of shape before,” he said. “But this was different. When you’re an athlete, you believe you can almost push through anything that might be debilitating to non-athletes.”

When he received the initial diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis, Williams shrugged and said OK. What medicine does he need? Give him a prescription and let him get back to practice. Why the long faces?

Well, the blood clots in his calf had broken free and traveled to his lungs. He was told he was suffering from a pulmonary embolism and would be on blood thinners forever. He’d lost all function of his right side.

That spelled the end of his pro career, but it wasn’t the last of his severe medical hardships.

Mike Williams’ time at Texas included hosting “The Mike Williams Show” on the school’s athletics website with guests such as teammate Everick Rawls (left). (Courtesy/Digital File_EMAIL)

Three years ago, he awoke at 3 a.m. He was sweating profusely. He got up to use the restroom but had trouble seeing. He stood up and immediately felt weakness in the entire right side of his body. He had double vision. The room was spinning.

His wife Jamie asked him what was wrong. Williams shrugged it off and asked for some aspirin. She grew more concerned and convinced him he needed to go to the emergency room. He reluctantly complied.

In the examination room, the attending physician checked out his symptoms and immediately diagnosed the problem

Williams, 43, had suffered a stroke.

“That’s not what you want to hear,” Williams said.

He knew he was in for a long recovery. He had trouble walking and had to undergo weeks of physical therapy. He could barely speak.

“I couldn’t formulate my words,” said Williams, who once suffered from a bad stuttering problem. “I could visualize the words in my brain, but I couldn’t get them out.”

He’s just now weaning himself off the cane that accompanied him for almost three years. The strength in his right side hasn’t completely returned. His knee will occasionally give out. But he’s returning to good health and counts his blessings.

His time at Texas wasn’t always rosy, either.

He told reporters last week that he almost quit the Texas football team during his freshman year. In fact, he might have, had not Longhorn assistant coach Hardee McCrary not taken a personal interest in The Colony graduate whom he and line coach Tim Nunez recruited.

“I almost wanted to quit. True story,” Williams said. “I was a freshman, I actually wanted to go home. Mack Brown and all the team were on the field, and Hardee McCrary actually sat there with me and said, ‘Hey, don’t worry about practice, stay here, let’s talk.’ It was just kind of like that freshman wall. But the next morning, I got up and I was just fine, and then the rest is history.”

A remarkable history, considering he’d never played in the offensive line in high school.

After toggling between the offensive and defensive line as a freshman, as did teammate Leonard Davis, Williams played in the Cotton Bowl win over Mississippi State as the team’s fifth defensive lineman before becoming a full-time offensive tackle.

He’ll never forget the traumatic death of Pittman, the defensive tackle who died when his pickup truck swerved off the road on U.S. 79 on his return to Austin from his home in Shreveport, La. He can still recall the entire team gathering at midfield at DKR under gray skies and singing “The Eyes of Texas” at practice.

Eight months after the tragedy, the Longhorns opened the season against North Carolina, Brown’s former team, and beat the Tar Heels with freshman tailback Cedric Benson scoring his first touchdown. Texas wore a CP decal on its helmets. Brett Robin capped the emotional day when he scored on a 12-yard run with 36 seconds to play to make it 44-14, but quarterback Major Applewhite took a knee instead of running the extra-point try. Pittman’s jersey number was 44.

“I remember Cory Redding yelling on the sideline to look at the scoreboard to leave the score,” Williams said. “That was meant to be. It was a perfect sendoff for Cole.”

And Williams had a full college experience he treasures to this day. He still checks in with teammates like Ahmad Brooks and Lee Jackson and Derrick Dockery. He regularly watches Texas’ games but admits it can be “very stressful.”

Williams started 28 games for the Longhorns and was a consensus All-American as a senior. He was selected fourth in the 2002 NFL draft, and became one of Texas’ 15 top-five draft picks in history.

Many of those memories came back to him last weekend while watching the Longhorns beat the Roadrunners. As he stared down at the field below from the Founders suite at DKR, he was overwhelmed with positive reflections. And a bit of bravado.

“I remembered the feeling and felt I could get out there and play right now,” he said. “I was fired up. I think I could give ’em a good five plays. That’s just the ballplayer in you. It never goes away.”

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