Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson returns to Paycor Stadium 36 years and two days after he was born in Cincinnati during another playoff push and yet Bengals great Reggie Williams is still rooting for the Stripes in Sunday's (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) age-old division matchup.
"My blood bleeds black and orange after 14 years in the same uniform," says Williams this week from his Orlando, Fla. home. "It just shows you the former players are always rooting for the current players."
Which means black-and-orange blood is thicker than forest green blood, sweat and tears, which Williams and Wilson's father, the late Harrison Benjamin Wilson III, shared and shed as teammates in the 1970s Ivy League at Dartmouth College.
It also means blood is thicker than ink because Russell Wilson wrote the foreword to Williams' 2020 memoir, Resilient By Nature.
"Another part of my dad's legacy, part of who he was as a man, flows through Reggie Williams," Russell Wilson wrote. "They were really close – the best of friends. Reggie was a big inspiration to my dad. But it went both ways. My dad gained a lot of knowledge from Reggie and vice versa. They shared a lot of wisdom and moments together. It remained that way through the years, long after their college days. That always stood out to me."
How could Reggie Williams not be an inspiration to anyone? Particularly to the young wide receiver two years his junior he took under his wing?
All-Ivy and All-Worldly, Williams went on to play from 1976-89 as the Bengals' most productive linebacker of all-time and Ring of Honor candidate while being named a man of the year by the NFL, Sports Illustrated, and a slew of civic organizations before starting a Super Bowl as a sitting Cincinnati City Councilman.
But the man they called "Harry B.," is still an inspiration even though he's been gone 14 years, and his son turns 36 on Friday. And his teammate and friend just turned 70.
"Harry B. is the only person I know who had no enemies in college. I had them. His self-belief spread positivity. My nickname for him was HB Productions because of his personality. A great smile," Williams says.
"Harrison was one of the greatest teammates you could ever have. He was so humble as a player. He had tremendous talent. He had tremendous ability to get open, to catch the ball in traffic, to be an elusive runner, and get in the end zone. But he wasn't braggadocio in any way, shape or form. He was a humble player. He was probably one of the best teammates that you could have in terms of his interpersonal communication with everybody."
Fate blitzed them a decade after graduation and re-united them in Cincinnati.
As Williams approached the twilight of his career, Harry B., a lawyer for Procter & Gamble, moved to the Cincinnati headquarters and his wife finished her nursing studies at Xavier. They had their second son on Nov. 29, 1988, two days after Williams had half a sack in the Bengals' victory over the Bills at Riverfront Stadium to basically clinch home-field advantage on the way to the Super Bowl.
"I remember when Russell was born. I've got a picture somewhere where I'm playing basketball with Harry B. and Russ was a baby and he was with his older brother Harry, who was about two or three," Williams says. "I remember Harry already had long hair. I used to stop by their house and give them tickets to go watch the Cincinnati Bengals."
Russ can't remember. Before he was two the family moved to Harry B.'s hometown of Richmond, Va. But the teammates never moved away from each other because life simply wouldn't let them. More teammate fate? As Harry B. lost his right leg because of diabetes, Williams struggled to save his own right leg in a raft of operations.
"This is how great a person Harrison Wilson is," Williams says. "When I was having the worst of my operations at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, Harry would call me for pep talks before all my operations, and I had eight of them up there all within five weeks."
Harry B., passed at age 55, and it is not lost on Williams that his son, that baby of 1988, who more than likely had been scooped up once or twice by one of the game's most productive linebackers, grew up to be a Hall of Fame quarterback.
(Williams didn't pick up the last and decisive turnover of the Freezer Bowl, but he forced it with his textbook shoulder hit on Chargers running back Chuck Muncie. And, as every Cincy school kid should know, with 54 sacks and 788 tackles, Williams and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Rickey Jackson are the only linebackers in the 1980s with 50 sacks and 700 tackles.)
"He's had an amazing career. He definitely outlived, by far, my projections when he first came into the NFL," Williams says of the baby. "My biggest concern, quite honestly, was the hits that he was taking. And he had been hit a couple of times early in his career, even in college.
"But he has spent a significant amount of his earnings on taking care of his health, and it's been an amazing return on the investment on the time and effort he's put into the talent that he brings to the Pittsburgh Steelers."
Wilson is in his 13th season and has said he wants to play many more. After leading Seattle to back-to-back Super Bowls while being named to nine Pro Bowls, his career took a disastrous detour to Denver the previous two seasons. But it has been revived by Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin's decision last month to bring him off the bench to replace Justin Fields.
With Wilson putting up a 98.6 passer rating in his five starts that is close to his career mark of 100.0 (fifth on the active list behind the 100.1 of Joe Lee Burrow), Tomlin's call has been rewarded with a 4-1 record. That stretch has helped steer the Steelers into first place in the AFC North at 8-3 with Wilson throwing just two interceptions and showing a flair for the big ball with 8.1 yards per attempt for his longest in six years.
Among those starts is his 40th game-winning drive, second on the active list to Matthew Stafford and tied for ninth on the all-time list with John Elway, two more than Johhny Unitas.
Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton denied Wilson his 41st in an October 2015 Paycor game that is Wilson's only NFL appearance in his birth city. But he contributed to one of the most thrilling home games in Bengals history as they rallied from 17 points down against Wilson's two-time defending NFC champions to win in overtime and stay unbeaten.
One of Wilson's game-winning drives came in his only other game against the Bengals in Seattle, another wild one that was also one of his 32 career fourth-quarter comebacks (second on the active list, ninth all-time) during head coach Zac Taylor's Bengals debut in the 2019 opener.
"It really was a touch of genius from Coach Tomlin how he inserted Russell at the right time in the right way over Justin Fields, who is a great talent," Williams says. "That's a coach understanding his team and what are the different levers that he can pull to enhance the motivation of the entire team by adding one different spark plug."
But it does gall Williams that the man who wrote his foreword has gone forward wearing that uniform.
"It is tough, very tough. I can't think of any other (uniform) I'd rather not see him in. Except for Cleveland," Williams says. "I know the DNA for our big rivalry is Cleveland. But for me, Pittsburgh has always been the biggest rival. When I came into the league, they had won the last two Super Bowls."
But Williams plans to watch and he knows he'll be thinking of Harry B.
"I'm always thinking of Harry B. They're the spitting image of each other," Williams says. "I wish him nothing but success on every Sunday. But against the Bengals."
Williams has a recipe for a win on Sunday.
"One turnover," says the man who forced the last one of the Freezer Bowl, "can change a game."
