Former Timber Creek star and South Jersey native hoping for 3rd Super Bowl win with Kansas City Chiefs
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On Sunday night on CBS Philadelphia, the Kansas City Chiefs will look to beat the San Francisco 49ers to become the first back-to-back Super Bowl champions since the 2003-2004 New England Patriots.
And there are plenty of ties to the Philadelphia region in the big game.
A South Jersey native, whose father coached under Andy Reid when he was with the Eagles, now coaches under Reid with the Chiefs.
Ted Williams served as the Philadelphia Eagles running back and tight end coach for 20 years. He then scouted for the Birds for a couple of years. 14 of those seasons were spent under Reid. On Sunday, Ted's son, Dan Williams, will complete his fifth season under Reid, and it will be his fourth Super Bowl.
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"I think I'm blessed and fortunate to be in this position," Dan Williams said. "To be with a great organization like the Kansas City Chiefs has been a blessing since 2019, and I think it's all about the hard work and the culture that Reid has instilled in these guys."
When Williams, a quarterback, graduated from Timber Creek Regional High School in Sicklerville in 2014, he held the South Jersey record for passing yards in a single season. Despite aspirations of becoming a baseball play-by-play guy, the football bug hit him while playing at Division III Stevenson University in Maryland. In 2019, his father reached out to some former colleagues.
"It ended up being April in 2019 that Coach called me and he was like, 'Hey, I've got an internship spot. It doesn't pay a lot, but we'd love to have you come on out and just work with us. We'd love to make this work.' And I jumped on board as soon as I possibly could," Dan Williams said. "We didn't want me to go somewhere and be like, 'Oh, this is Ted's son.' We want you to go and learn and become Dan, Dan Williams the adult, and I think I've done that here in Kansas City."
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Dan Williams, who is only 27, served as a coaching intern in 2019. The next two seasons he was assistant to the head coach. Last year, he was an offensive assistant, and this season, he's assistant quarterbacks coach/offensive quality control.
Williams works closely with Reid, Patrick Mahomes, the NFL's best player, and the best tight end, Travis Kelce.
"When you talk about the coaching perspective, Coach Reid and Coach [Steve Spagnuolo], two of the best to ever do it. And I think that their process and the way they detail the game for the players, I think is what really speaks volumes to me in how our guys intake. And then when you see guys like Chris Jones, Pat Mahomes, Travis Kelce -- when they take what is being taught in the classroom and apply it on the field -- it just brings out the best in all of us," Dan Williams said.
Williams said he calls his dad most Fridays. He loves and misses South Jersey, especially the Ocean City Boardwalk, and he's looking forward to spending time with his 17-month-old daughter and wife on Sunday, hopefully, after Super Bowl win number three.