If you click on Tramon Williams' Twitter on Tuesday, you'll be greeted by a smattering of digital balloons.
The balloons couldn't be more appropriate. It's Williams' 38th birthday, and also the day he chose to officially retire from the NFL. Williams announced his retirement with a series of thankful tweets on Tuesday.
Williams' career was a notable success story for the fans of the undrafted. The defensive back from Louisiana Tech landed with the Houston Texans in 2006, where he was a training camp participant but fell short of the final 53-man roster, ending up on the Texans' practice squad for much of the 2006 season. Green Bay signed him off that squad in late November of 2006, and it was in Wisconsin where Williams would rise from afterthought to key defender.
Williams played for the Packers from 2006-2014, making the Pro Bowl and winning a Super Bowl in 2010. He eventually earned a three-year deal from the Cleveland Browns in 2015, spending two seasons there before being released and landing with the Arizona Cardinals in 2017, where he began a resurgence that earned him a second stint with the Packers from 2018-2019.
From there, it was off to Baltimore, where Williams joined the Ravens late in the 2020 season, appearing in seven games before he was released in January. With Green Bay still alive in the postseason, Williams joined the Packers' practice squad in 2021 and was elevated to the active roster ahead of the NFC Championship Game. Though he did not play, he spent his final week in the NFL with the team that gave him his best shot at a professional career.
Williams heads off to retirement with the satisfaction of a lengthy NFL career and the gleam of his Lombardi Trophy in his case at his home. After it appeared he might be headed toward the end of his playing days in 2017, Williams' comeback efforts ended up extending his career for another four years, serving as an example of his unrelenting determination that propelled him from an undrafted free agent to a mainstay at the sport's highest level.
