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Caddy Vows To Have An Answer

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 28, 2008

LAKE BUENA VISTA - It happened a lot during the past few months, some of the longest of his 26 years. He'd be in a store, or a restaurant, somewhere, and someone would recognize him. They remember his game and his smile.

"They came up to me a lot," Carnell Williams said. "They'd say, 'Sorry about the career-ending injury.' I'd be like, 'Huh?' as they walked away."

Huh.

Cadillac Williams is at Bucs training camp, on the edge of it, really working in the shadows as his teammates don helmets and pads.

Earnest Graham, the starting running back, with a new contract to prove it, took the media podium after practice Sunday morning. Warrick Dunn, back with the Bucs, promises that he has something left.

Off stage, Cadillac made a promise, too.

"I'll get back. I know I will."

'It's Truly Quite A Test'

There is evidence to the contrary. There's that nearly foot-long scar that runs down Williams' right leg, slashing across the knee like a circuit cable. Williams smiled at his scar.

"The guys, they tell me, 'Oh, man, you got a nice zip on you.'"

Beneath the scar is where surgeons went to work early last season to repair a torn patellar tendon.

It ended Williams' 2007 season, and there are those, many of those, who wonder if a career went with it. He enters camp on the team's physically unable to perform list, or PUP.

The Bucs are hopeful, or at least talk that way. Coach Jon Gruden talks about Cadillac, about him getting back. But there's no timetable.

"I think the first part of the season is a good goal," Williams said.

Maybe the first part.

Maybe this season.

Maybe not.

"They're taking it slow," Williams said.

So slow that you just don't see as many No. 24 jerseys in the stands at Bucs camp this season. So slow this team has had to move on for now. So slow that who out there thinks all that much about Caddy anymore?

It's a world away from 2005, that dazzling rookie season, when he carried the Bucs back into the playoffs.

Now there's Graham, and there's Dunn, and there's Michael Bennett, all trying to prove something. Graham is out to show he deserves that contract. Dunn is set to show there's something left in his tank. Bennett wants to flash breakaway speed.

Carnell Williams wants to get back is all.

"I'm going through the process where I'm kind of rehabbing," he said. "I'm making some cuts, running, getting there, slowly but surely.

"This has been hard, very hard. You can't put it into words. It can get you down. You just have to stay positive and upbeat."

His mom, Sherry, tells him this is a test, the Lord is testing his will.

"It's truly quite a test," Cadillac said.

He Vows He Will Be Back

Teammates don't doubt the man.

"You know, Cadillac is the type of player who, he's not the person who talks the most," Bucs offensive lineman Davin Joseph said. "Most of his words come through his play. He'll show everybody what they need to know by the time he comes back."

"Cadillac will be back," Graham said. "I saw him working out the other day and I thought he looked really well. ... He wasn't making any cuts and he wasn't in pads, but he was running well. Cadillac is a guy who's a fighter, man. He'll be back. He'll be back and he'll be back somewhere close to the level he was before."

Carnell Williams says he can't wait to run that improving line. But he hears the whispers. Sometimes they're not even whispers. People say it right to his face.

Career-ending.

"That fires me up a little bit. All the reports say I'm done, that he can't come back, that's really what keeps me going, wakes me up with a smile on my face every morning.

"I know some guys don't make it. I don't think I'm one of those guys."

Then he walked to the locker room. His teammates kept practicing.

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