Bengals RB Trayveon Williams takes uncommon side job for NFL player: He’ll be teaching at a major university

When NFL players go back to school during the offseason, it’s usually so they can get a degree that they didn’t finish while in college, but that’s not what Bengals running back Trayveon Williams will be doing when he heads back to Texas A&M next spring.  

When Williams gets back to his old college, he’ll be doing something that you almost never see from an active NFL player: He’ll be serving as a professor. 

During a recent appearance on the Your Potential for Everything podcast with sports attorney Alex Sinatra, Williams revealed that he would be serving as an adjunct professor at Texas A&M. Williams will co-teach a class with Sinatra that covers the “ins and outs” of college athletics with a focus on how to handle things like an NIL.

“Now that athletes can capitalize off their name, image, and likeness, from the law standpoint, there has to be someone that represents them,” Williams said on the podcast, via Front Office Sports.

From 2016 thru 2018, Williams had a highly successful three-year football career at Texas A&M. In his final year at the school, Williams rushed for 1,760, which still stands as the single-season rushing record at A&M. Over the course of his career, he rushed for a total of 3,615 yards, which still ranks as the third-most in school history. 

As someone who had a successful college career, Williams views himself as a guy who can teach today’s athletes about what it takes to get through the system. 

“Having someone who has been in that system, who can relate, and who can bring a certain stamp of actual, real-life engagement in that world, I feel like can be beneficial,” Williams said on the podcast, via ESPN. 

Williams won’t be missing any time with the Bengals while he’s working his side job, and that’s because he won’t be teaching the course until the spring of 2023. 

“I’ll be a full-time Bengal during the season, I promise,” Williams said. “However, after the season’s over, I’m putting my professor hat on and getting to work.”

Williams has been with the Bengals since 2019 when they selected him in the sixth-round of the NFL Draft. Although he hasn’t seen much action in his three seasons, he has put up impressive numbers when he’s been on the field. Williams is averaging 5.7 yards per carry with 41 career rushes. During the Bengals’ Super Bowl season in 2021, Williams touched the ball 16 times over the course of the year with 15 rushes and one reception.