Former Ravens tight end Maxx Williams is coming back to Baltimore to accept the Ed Block Courage Award, given to a player on each NFL team who demonstrates sportsmanship and courage.
Williams’ Arizona Cardinals teammates voted for him to be awarded this prestigious honor after he bounced back from a serious knee injury suffered in 2021. Recipients will be honored during the Ed Block Celebration Cocktail Party at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel on April 1.
Being nominated for the award by his teammates was particularly special for Williams.
“Hearing from guys on the team like J.J. [Watt], guys like [Zach] Ertz, the older guys that I’ve always looked up to, telling me how they saw what I was doing with the injury I had and how I had the drive to keep playing and how it inspired them to keep going through some stuff,” Williams said on Glenn Clark Radio March 28. “To hear that from them in person and be nominated for the award, it felt really good inside for me, personally.”
The Ravens drafted Williams in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Williams played in Baltimore from 2015-2018 before signing with the Cardinals. During his four years in Baltimore, the 6-foot-4, 252-pound tight end caught 63 passes for 497 yards and three touchdowns.
“It’s just kind of fun to go back where it all started, see all my friends I had and made there and just experience it one more time,” Williams said.
Williams, 28, has not put up the biggest numbers during his eight-year career — he has caught 105 passes for 1,012 yards and six touchdowns — but is an example of amazing resilience.
Williams suffered a torn ACL in his right knee on a hit in Week 5 of the 2021 season. He also suffered nerve damage outside of his knee on the hit, resulting in drop foot, a condition that prevents him from feeling his right foot. He also can’t feel much of his leg from the knee down, making it difficult to walk and jeopardizing his career.
“Everywhere that nerve runs to, from basically right side on the side of my knee down, that’s kind of numb,” Williams said. “I can’t really feel that or use those muscles at all. … I can only push down and use my calf and move it in. I can’t actually really lift my foot at all.”
But after a long recovery process, Williams beat the odds and made his return to the field in 2022. He caught a 7-yard pass in Week 11, proving to himself that he could still play football. Williams wears a special brace on his right leg.
Williams credited his family for keeping him going.
“I told myself I couldn’t live with myself or look at my kids and tell them I tried or look myself in the mirror if I didn’t go out and try to do it,” Williams said. “If I could come back from the injury and I just couldn’t play football anymore, if I knew I gave it everything I had, I could live with that. But I couldn’t live with not knowing.”
Williams hopes to continue his NFL career but will need to find a new home to make that dream a reality. The free-agent tight end is open to rejoining the Ravens.
“I was so young when I was there. I left after my fourth year and the league changes as you get older and see it through different eyes,” Williams said. “I think it would actually be a lot of fun to go back and re-experience it.”
For more from Williams, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Arizona Cardinals