A former Clemson defensive lineman has found a new home in the NFL.
The Buffalo Bills announced Thursday they have signed defensive tackle DeShawn Williams to a one-year deal.
Williams spent 2023 with the Carolina Panthers after signing with the team last offseason. He posted 33 total tackles, seven quarterback hits and a sack in 2023.
Originally an undrafted free agent in 2015, the 6-foot-1, 295-pound Williams has spent time with the Bengals, Dolphins, Colts and Calgary Stampeders of the CFL, to go along with three stints with the Broncos and his one season with the Panthers.
Williams spent three seasons in Denver prior to his time in Carolina and had a career-high 4.5 sacks in 2022. The 31-year-old has tallied 148 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss and nine sacks in his NFL career.
A former Daniel High School standout, Williams played at Clemson from 2011-14, racking up 161 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, 24 quarterback pressures, four pass breakups, one recovered fumble and two blocked kicks over 53 games (17 starts) in his career as a Tiger.
#BillMafia so thankful
— DeShawn Williams (@iamDeShawnW) March 28, 2024
Building out the defensive line. 😤
We’ve signed DT DeShawn Williams to a one-year deal! #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/9rRFfzP2Tl
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) March 28, 2024
–Photo courtesy Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
A limited number of signed footballs from Clemson’s 2022 class are still available. Get yours while supplies last! Visit Clemson Variety & Frame or purchase online!
- The 35-year-old veteran signal-caller and the pop star are parents to three kids
- The Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants held talks with Wilson this week
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
Russell Wilson is at crossroads in his career following the Denver Broncos wanting to cut his five-year, $252million deal after just two seasons at Mile High.
The 35-year-old veteran quarterback, who married Grammy-winning singer Ciara in 2016, is attracting a handful of teams this offseason, including the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers — two teams with whom he held discussions with this week.
So, as he figures out his future in the league, the one-time Super Bowl champ’ (with the Seattle Seahawks in 2013) and his wife are reassessing their real estate empire.
That includes homes in Washington State, Colorado, California and Mexico. What’s more is that the couple recently set an all-time high for the most expensive property purchase in the Denver area after Wilson’s blockbuster trade from the Seahawks to the Broncos in 2022. His net worth is an estimated $165M.
So, as soon-to-be free agents, like Wilson, assess their next move this offseason, DailyMail.com takes a look at where one of the most affluent NFL players likes to relax when he isn’t under pressure in the pocket.
Cherry Hills Village, outside of Denver, Colorado
After winning just 11 of his 30 starts and falling victim to several coaching and QB switches in two seasons in Denver, which hasn’t hosted a playoff game since 2016, Wilson is putting his $25M, 11,000-sq-ft mansion in Cherry Hills Village – a wealthy suburb in the area – for sale.
He and Ciara set a record for the most expensive property purchase in Colorado’s capital after buying the European-inspired home when they first arrived in the state in 2022.
On site, there are four bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and five half bathrooms, with one guest apartment located above a detached nine-car garage.
A wood-paneled dining room, a screen room, indoor pool, basketball court, and outdoor fireplace are also within the home and property.
News emerged last week that Wilson is listening to offers and giving tours to potential buyers for his home in the Denver area.
Bellevue, Washington State
Drafted by the Seahawks as a third-round pick in 2012, it’s safe to say that Wilson will always have a special place for Seattle in his heart, including the swanky suburb of Bellevue, where he and Ciara purchased two parcels of land for a total of $13.4M.
The first parcel, which they bought in 2015 before their wedding at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire, England, cost $6.7M. The second, which they snapped up in 2019, cost roughly the same amount.
Sitting on the scenic Lake Washington, the 1.89-acre estate grants the couple and their four children, including Ciara’s stepson with Future, 270 ft of lakeshore access, including small private beaches, a three-slip dock, and unparalleled views of the Seattle skyline.
The home itself includes six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, a home theater, a recording studio, and a professional gym spawning across 11,104 square feet.
The Wilsons added their personal touch on the property by setting up a three-story elevator, a gazebo, and a distinctive, green treehouse that overlooks the lake. The home’s interior is also grand in scale, with huge crystal chandeliers, never-ending spiral staircases with wrought-iron railings, and marble flooring throughout.
Following Wilson’s trade to Denver, however, the family decided to put the mansion up for sale, listing it for $36M. To this day, it is still up for grabs!
Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego, California
Perhaps the most impressive property of them all is Wilson’s long owned home right outside of San Diego in Rancho Sante Fe, where the nine-time Pro Bowl selectee was once famous for hosting unofficial practices throughout the offseason.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in Richmond, Virginia, it is unclear as to what ties Wilson has to SoCal other than an affinity for the home and surrounding area.
Well hidden under the local palm trees, the property extends over eight acres and used to be an equestrian estate, which came in handy for Wilson, as he converted the horse arena in to a football field where he and his teammates on the Seahawks would practice every offseason after the player’s second year in the league (2013).
According to ESPN, the field even has Wilson’s ‘RW3’ logo painted in the middle of it.
Wilson once told ESPN: ‘We have the best jobs in the world: We get to play football for a living. We get to spend time together. It’s a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of focus, a lot of long days, long nights, early mornings. All of those things add up, even in the offseason.’
The athlete, his wife, and their kids still appear to call the San Diego area their home base, even calling it their ‘home away from home ‘ in 2021.
Honorable mentions: Los Angeles, Mexico and a mysterious location
After successfully making it into the league, Wilson opted to reward his mother, Tammy Wilson, for bringing him up with the purchase of a brand new house on Mother’s Day.
In a video shared by the quarterback on Instagram, his mother seemed confused when Wilson hands her a set of keys. ‘Those are the keys to your new home,’ he told her in the clip. After realizing what he had just done for her, Tammy can be heard asking her son if he is ‘for real’ before crying tears of joy.
‘After these years you have never asked me for anything… only thing you ever wanted is for me to LOVE,’ Wilson captioned the post. ‘Well thanks for loving us the way you do. This one’s for you. I love you momma.’ It’s unclear where Mama Wilson’s house is located.
The Wilsons also own homes in Los Angeles and Mexico, which are two frequent travel destinations that the family go to for business and leisure. Not much is out there in terms of information on both properties.
One of Andrew Hawkins’ biggest regrets as an investor was that he didn’t push harder several years ago to buy the sneaker blog that eventually became StockX, the online resale platform that has been valued at nearly $4 billion.
Hawkins, a former NFL wide receiver, connected with Josh Luber, the creator of the website, which was then called Campless, and pitched turning it into a business. But Hawkins says he got distracted by his football career and before he knew it Dan Gilbert, owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, bought it and later turned it into StockX.
“I was so upset,” Hawkins said. “But I can pick a winner, that was the ultimate lesson.”
The 37-year-old Hawkins is now the co-founder of the sports technology and gaming startup StatusPro. The company debuted its first virtual reality game, NFL Pro Era, in 2022 and recently closed a $20 million funding round led by GV, formerly known as Google Ventures. The company plans to expand into making VR games for other sports, including boxing, baseball and tennis.
Retired NFL player @Hawk says he didn’t spend his first paycheck because he was afraid there wouldn’t be another one.
He also tells us about missing out on being one of the first investors in @stockX https://t.co/4L3YKjiQKB pic.twitter.com/iKEDlbY1PN
— Bloomberg (@business) March 7, 2024
Hawkins recently spoke to Bloomberg about his other investment stories and lessons learned.
When you got your first big NFL paycheck how did you spend it?
I put it away. I didn’t spend it because I was nervous there wasn’t going to be a second paycheck. So I literally went to the bank, and I thought to myself if they cut me tomorrow, now I have about $15,000 that I can get a good start at a new life.
And when did you feel like you had made it?
I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I made it. And that can be a good and a bad thing. But I do think it keeps me hungry and keeps me continuing to push to do new things.
Let’s go back to your regrets about StockX. What did Luber say to you after he sold to Gilbert?
He circled back and said: ‘Hawk you were one of the first people that came to me with this as a business. I want to let you be one of the first investors.’
I was so upset I had it taken from under me I didn’t invest.
Is there something you invested in that you wish you didn’t?
Yes. I won’t call them out specifically, but there was a media company that I invested in. It was a great proposition.
Ultimately, what I learned in that moment as an investor is you have to be very, very sure that there is a culture and ideology that aligns with the idea, that they can execute it.
After she devoted years to supporting her son’s dream, Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore repaid the favor for his mother, Heri, with the gift of a lifetime.
The 24-year-old Barmore shared a video via Instagram on Sunday evening, with the defensive lineman welcoming his mother to her new home.
“All for you momma,” Barmore wrote in the Instagram video caption with heart emojis.
“I love it,” Heri Barmore is heard saying in the video as she walks past the kitchen and into a sun-filled living room. “I love it. It’s huge.”
Both Barmore and his mother embrace during the video, which ends with both of them posing for a photo in front of the house.
You can watch the video below:
Since he first arrived in Foxborough in 2021, Barmore has found several avenues to support his mother and pay tribute to her.
Over his first three seasons with the Patriots, Barmore has worn customized cleats during the NFL’s “My Cause My Cleats” initiative that raises money for charities and organizations dedicated to multiple sclerosis (MS) causes — including the National MS Society. Heri Barmore has battled MS for most of her son’s life.
“I’ve seen the pain they go through. Taking needles every day to keep them healthy, can’t be in the heat for a long time because it might trigger them,” Barmore said in a story with Patriots.com back in 2021. “I’m doing this because of my mom. When I was young, I didn’t even [understand] what happened … every day I just fight for my mom.”
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