Jonah Williams: 'Hopefully they can have some semblance of a normal college season'

Jonah Williams hopes college football will be played this fall

CINCINNATI — Bengals left tackle Jonah Williams is looking forward to playing his first NFL snap this season. The second-year pro is fully healthy after undergoing shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum that caused him to miss the entire 2019 season. 

Williams knows what it's like to be away from football for a year. He's hoping that the NCAA and the major conferences can come together and make sure student athletes can take the field safely this fall. 

"I don't think there has ever not been a college football season," Williams said. "That's tough. I feel for the guys, especially some of the guys I played with who chose to come back for their senior year when they could have come out for the draft. I feel for those guys and I'm interested to see how this plays out, but hopefully they can get some semblance of a normal college season."

Williams made 40 starts for Alabama in three seasons. He developed his game and was the top tackle in the 2019 NFL Draft. He understands that life is a bit different in the pros.

"They're [the NCAA] looking at either not having a season or having an extremely altered season," Williams said. "We're all adapting right now and fortunately the NFL is in a little bit better position, because we have less teams, less players and more ability to have stricter protocols to contain this virus more easily than (college teams) with 100 people on their team and the big college campus, and tons of staff, lots of traveling."

He's in favor of players at the college level receiving more benefits for putting their bodies on the line. He thinks former NCAA football players should receive health insurance after their playing days are over.  

"There's definitely a lot of schools where there is disparity between the revenue the players bring in and the amount that they're compensated in terms of scholarship and all those things," Williams said. "I think for college sports in general it's tough to think of unionizing and making demands like that when so few teams are profitable. I think they have a long way to go. I like that they understand the leverage they have as players and they want to be treated more fairly, but I think they have a long way to go to make it work."

It doesn't look good for college football in 2020, but hopefully the conferences can come together to create a plan that allows players to return to the field safely.

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