How KC Chiefs’ Joshua Williams made it from Fayetteville State to his third Super Bowl

Very few Division II football players even dream of having a chance at being drafted into the NFL. Few manage to get that phone call on draft night and even fewer become Super Bowl champions.

Joshua Williams never cared about these odds.

In fact, he has defied every single one of them and has a chance to add his third Super Bowl ring to his NFL resume on Sunday when his Kansas City Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles.

Williams was born in Fayetteville and attended that city’s Jack Britt High School. He had football talent, but his grades didn’t match that. As a result, he wasn’t able to go Division I and decided to stay local and attend Fayetteville State University, a Division II HBCU.

But the dominance as a defensive back in college spoke for itself. Williams earned first-team All-Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association accolades, catching the eyes of NFL teams. Williams built close friendships at FSU and in his small amount of free time there, he enjoyed hanging out with his teammates.

While many people doubted him, he stayed grounded in what mattered the most to him — his faith.

“Personally, for me, it’s everything,” Williams said. “You know, everybody has their own beliefs or whatever, and I respect that. But for me, [Christ’s] the reason I’m here where I am today.”

After finishing his collegiate career in fall 2021, Williams was given mixed messages on if he had a chance at the next level. Some told him he might make it in later rounds, others said it could be in the first few.

But when the time came and he got a phone call on draft night, he initially didn’t answer because he had gotten calls from so many people all night. His family encouraged him to finally pick it up.

“So, you know, draft day comes, and, you know, I’m sitting in my living room,” Williams said. “We’re relaxing, we’re just watching the draft, and I get a phone call from a 816 number, Kansas City area code, and for some reason [it] just didn’t click. I don’t know, I was kind of wondering why somebody [was] calling me. It wasn’t clicking because I was too focused on the TV.”

Luckily for Williams, when he finally answered the call it was the Kansas City Chiefs telling him they were going to select him 135th overall in the fourth-round of the 2022 NFL Draft. That evening, Williams became the first Fayetteville State player to be drafted in over 40 years and the first HBCU student drafted since 2020.

The cornerback is now in his third NFL season and notched 19 solo tackles and six passes defended, tied for 11th most in the league, in the 2024 regular season. He made key plays in the Chiefs’ 2022 postseason run, which resulted in a ring, and he is hoping to do the same thing this weekend.

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has seen William’s growth first-hand.

“Josh has been with us for three years now. He went from being a small college football player to playing in the NFL,” Spagnuolo said. “He works so hard at it every day, does a terrific job on special teams. Whatever role he plays, he accepts it really well.”

His speed and versatility is often overlooked but Williams doesn’t focus on that — all he worries about is making sure his coaches know what he can bring to the defense.

“He’s a fast guy that loves to play, “ Spagnuolo said. “I watch him on special teams when he’s running down there on the punt return, and I think he has a real good effect. It helps our football team win games.”

The respect between the two is mutual — Williams has learned so much from Spagnuolo as one of the best defensive minds in the history of the NFL. That knowledge has helped him improve as a player from year one in the league to now.

What impressed Williams the most about his defensive coordinator is his ability to dissect game plans and think ahead multiple quarters to see what adjustments can be made in-game.

“He’s a brilliant mind — he can plan things two-three quarters ahead, show you something in the first quarter, and maybe the quarterback can see it again in the fourth quarter, and they think it is the same thing, and it’s a completely different thing,” Williams said.

“I feel like that’s a lot of times why our blitz is getting home, why quarterbacks make mistakes. He’s showing so many different looks, and he knows when to do it and how to do it. And, you know, there’s so many intricacies he’s telling us to do. So all of these things are like a puzzle piece to him, and then it all comes together at the right moment.”

Williams will never forget his journey from Fayetteville to his third Super Bowl in as many years. While the path was nowhere near linear, Williams is proof that you don’t have to be in a power conference, let alone in Division I, to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

He is showing the next generation of HBCU athletes that anything can be accomplished if you take the right steps.

“I definitely will say a lot of times, if you’re doing the right things, and you’re doing exactly what you should be doing, covering all bases, they’re gonna come find you,” he said. “I mean, it’s really hard to hide talent with the kind of scouts we have and the kind of people in the league that know how to read talent and find talent.”

Anna Laible is a student with UNC Media Hub, a program with the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, reporting from the Super Bowl in New Orleans. Laible hosts the Speak Up Sports Podcast. Follow her journey covering her first Super Bowl on her Instagram (@anna_laible).

This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 6:00 AM.