Trent Williams is arguably the best left tackle in football, and he’s been key to the San Francisco 49ers‘ success this season. Sitting at 8-3 and first in the NFC West, the 49ers are one of the best teams in the NFL.
Williams has been successful for a long time, but it wasn’t always easy. In fact, he was once diagnosed with cancer and had to battle his way back.
Recently, he shared more on the heartbreaking story and his mindset.
Trent Williams’ Battle With Cancer
Trent Williams was born July 19, 1988, in Longview, Texas. He attended Longview High School before attending the University of Oklahoma. He spent three seasons with Oklahoma from 2006-2009 before getting drafted fourth overall by the Washington Commanders in the 2010 NFL Draft.
He was with Washington from 2010-2019 before joining San Francisco in 2020. In his NFL career, Williams has been named first-team All-Pro twice and a Pro Bowler 10 times.
In 2019, near the end of his time with Washington, it was reported Williams had a surgical procedure done to remove a growth from his head, diagnosed as dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP). He was told, at just 30 years old, that the cancer developed deep in the skin and was creeping toward his brain.
The growth was first noticed in 2013, but Williams claimed that the Washington medical staff told him it wasn’t serious. He ended up demanding to be released or traded due to how the team’s medical staff handled the situation.
Even to this day, Williams still thinks about what happened. He didn’t know how long he had left after his diagnosis. Doctors didn’t give him a timetable for how much longer he had left. They just told him it could be his “last days.”
“Every time I go into a locker room, every time I put the helmet on. I flash back and think about the time where Doc said, ‘Get your affairs in order,’” said Williams on the Third and Long Podcast.
He shared that his biggest thought was his family. “I think you need to get closer to your girls. It looks pretty serious, I don’t know how long you got left. You need to get your affairs in order,” he said.
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The surgeries Williams received in 2019 included 30% of his scalp, skin grafts from his thigh, and a few hundred stitches. He was able to avoid chemotherapy, which would have put a 15-year cap on his life. The incisions in Williams’ head did not require him to retire from football, allowing him to continue his Hall of Fame career after being sidelined for eight months.
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