Bengals RB Trayveon Williams to teach at Texas A&M
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (BVM) – Cincinnati Bengals running back Trayveon Williams knows what being a student-athlete can do to a college student. Playing three seasons for the Texas A&M Aggies football team, Williams understands the pressures and significance of balancing academics and success in college athletics. Now, Williams will look to help the next generation of Aggies as they come through the school as an adjunct professor of a new NIL-centric course for the Texas A&M School of Law.
“I’m a new oncoming professor at Texas A&M Law School,” Williams said in a Twitter discussion. “It’s a blessing to be able to be able to do the things God has blessed me to do and extremely thankful to have met [co-professor] Alex [Sinatra] and extremely thankful for the many opportunities that have arisen from me being at Texas A&M. I’m excited.”
More Than An Athlete ! @YourPotential4 @TAMULawSchool & I are cooking up something that can Revolutionize the NIL world. https://t.co/2NQ08Sg4VY
— Trayveon Williams (@TrayveonW) June 28, 2022
The course will be on the NCAA’s new Name, Image and Likeness rules as well as college athletics and athlete advocacy for the law program. While initially a joke by a business law journal, Williams was approached by Sinatra to help her create the class and sign on as her co-professor.
“I went to [his] Twitter and was like ‘His DMs are open I’m just going to slide into those DMs for a professional opportunity,’” Sinatra said on Twitter. “I said ‘Hey I know you saw the tweets, do you want to teach a class with me’ and a couple of days later you were like ‘Hell yeah! Let’s go.”
“When it became something that was real life I was extremely excited by it because I know for me personally I was a college athlete before, I was a student-athlete,” Williams said. “I feel like it is extremely important and extremely beneficial for students, for anyone who’s taking this class, that having a professional athlete and a collegiate athlete in that system who can relate and bring that certain standpoint.”
While the course will be a huge one for college athletes, law students and the Texas A&M community in general, it is also a major positive for Williams who is also an entrepreneur and wants to expand his own brand and help himself become more rounded and recognized as more than an athlete.
“Being more than an athlete is something that I want to build my brand on,” Williams said. “I can’t play football forever, I would love to and if I could play to 100 by God I’d do it if I could, but realistically speaking that is impossible. You have to build those foundations for the avenues after football.”
Williams was a legend for the Aggies during his time in College Station. During his career, Williams rushed for 3,615 yards and 34 rushing touchdowns while catching 66 passes for 561 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown in three seasons with the team. As a junior in 2018, Williams would finish the year with career bests in rushing yards with 1,760, rushing touchdowns with 18, receiving yards with 278, receiving touchdowns with one and total yards with 2,038.
The junior running back would be named second-team All-American by the Associated Press, The Sporting News and CBS Sports after leading the Southeastern Conference in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns and setting new Aggies program records for all-purpose yardage and rushing yards in a season.
In the 2019 Draft, Williams would be selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the sixth round with the No. 182 pick. During his three-year NFL career, Williams has played in 26 games with the Bengals recording 208 rushing yards on 41 carries while averaging 5.1 yards per attempt.
The course is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2023 and it will take place after the Super Bowl so Bengals fans will not have to worry about the possibility of Williams missing games. While Williams’ NFL career is still ongoing, he will have the opportunity to potentially jumpstart a new profession once his playing days are over.
“I’m excited. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this opportunity,” Williams continued. “I went to Texas A&M and everything I did there and everyone I met and just the opportunities of the Aggie Network. This is a prime example of the Aggie Network in full fledged. You can’t make this stuff up, you really can’t.”
