How a former UNC football star turned a bad break into a good one

There’s money to be made in eSports. Deunta Williams knows this.

It’s July and NFL players are reporting to training camp but the former North Carolina football star is trying to figure out how the world of professional video gamers can be profitable.

This is not what Williams thought he would be doing with his life at 30. The former All-ACC safety always figured he’d make it in the NFL.

He was projected to be a first- or second-round pick before his turbulent senior season at UNC in 2010. A gruesome leg injury in the first quarter of his final college game changed all of Williams’ plans. But the Jacksonville native has figured out how to turn a bad break into a good one.

He has used the money from a $2 million insurance policy he took out before his senior season to rewrite his own story.

Instead of an NFL safety, he’s an entrepreneur and an author. He moved back to his hometown in eastern North Carolina and got into real estate and restaurant franchising. He started his own foundation to work with and help the kids in his community.

He’s not old enough to run for president but he has been through so much already he decided to write a book (“My Breaking Point”) about his life.

“Life is a lot bigger than what we go through,” Williams said.

And there has been more to it than Williams could have ever imagined. He was raised by his mother and grandmother in the projects in Jacksonville.

He became a three-sport standout at White Oak High and earned a football scholarship to UNC in 2006. After he redshirted his first season with an injury, he started for three years at free safety. He always had a knack for making plays. He had 169 tackles and 12 interceptions, including six in his All-ACC season in 2009, in his first three seasons as a starter.

Instead of going to the NFL after his redshirt junior season, Williams decided to come back for the 2010 season. He was one of several UNC players who opted to put the NFL on hold.

“We really thought we were good enough to win the national championship,” Williams said.

UNC’s season was derailed by an NCAA investigation before it started. The top players, Williams included, were charged with taking money or improper benefits.

Three of UNC’s best players, defensive end Robert Quinn, defensive tackle Marvin Austin and receiver Greg Little, were suspended for the whole season. Williams received a four-game suspension.

He explains in the book that former UNC safety Omar Brown used his credit card to pay for a hotel stay for Williams in California. Williams said he paid Brown back. The NCAA didn’t care.

Williams goes into detail about the NCAA investigation, and the subsequent academic scandal at UNC, in his book.

Williams had to sit out the first four games of the 2010 season. He never got back in his 2009 form but he had hoped a strong showing against Tennessee in the Music City Bowl in Nashville would boost his draft stock.

It turned out to be the last football game of his life. Midway through the first quarter, Williams went to tackle Tennessee tight end Luke Stocker. Williams got his right leg caught underneath him.

The fibula snapped near his ankle. It wasn’t a clean break. There was ligament and nerve damage.

He went through the draft prep process in 2011 and had hoped a team would take a chance on his recovery. His agent, the late Eugene Parker, suggested he start a journal.

“It really started out as a project to help me digest what was going on with me,” Williams said. “As I started writing, it turned into chapters.”

Surgeries, procedures and a 6-inch steel plate couldn’t fix Williams’ leg, at least not to the point where he could compete in the NFL.

“I do play kickball,” Williams joked.

It took four years to finish the book. It took longer to come to grips with the injury. But Williams has figured out how to apply his talents to life without football. His primary business ventures are in real estate and flipping houses. He has recently taken an interest in eSports and bringing a facility to North Carolina.

“I was strong — I could bench press 415 pounds — but my gift wasn’t necessarily a physical prowess,” Williams said. “I have a strong mind. I was always able to understand what was going on.”

In early retirement, that gift is still serving Williams well.

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 8:59 AM.