The Lead
Good news, Broncos Country: Running back Javonte Williams is progressing well in his recovery from an ACL injury and hopes to return to the field as soon as possible.
"Injury [recovery] is going good," Williams said Monday at the launch event for his charitable foundation. "I'm off the crutches; just continuing to rehab and just trying to get back on the field as quickly as I can."
Williams explained that he can put weight on his knee now, and he has been able to ramp up his rehab and start upper body workouts.
"I'm really just listening to everything my doctors say, and just take every day of rehab as a practice and as a game, because that's pretty much my game day and my practices, just going to rehab," Williams said. "So, I'm attacking that just like I attack everything else."
As Williams works on his recovery with treatment at UCHealth Training Center, his progress has not gone unnoticed by teammates.
"I saw him walking the other day, and I was like, 'They need to get him a pair of cleats! He looks good!'" fellow running back Mike Boone said on Dec. 1.
Having the support of his family has been huge for Williams as he works his way back. After Williams suffered his injury in Week 4, Jermaine and Shekemia Williams came to Colorado to be with their son — and they don't plan on leaving until he is fully healed. Williams noted that his parents have been instrumental in his recovery, and having them in Denver also means that he gets to watch his foster sister Ryleigh grow up.
"It's kind of hard [being a foster brother], being that I'm in the NFL," Williams said. "When my mom and my dad first got Ryleigh, I was in college. I really couldn't go home all the time and see her. But now that I got hurt, she's with me every day, so just seeing her grow up, just seeing her learn little things every single day, you can tell that she gets smarter day by day, and that's just something to watch and marvel at."
Below the Fold
Williams officially launched his charitable foundation on Monday with his inaugural fundraising event, the "Mile High Celebrity Round-Up."
On a night of dinner, drinks, autographs from Broncos players and a live auction, the Javonte Williams Foundation raised money to help children in the foster system — a cause that is very close to Williams' heart.
"It really touches me personally, being that I've got a foster sister, and just seeing everything that she went through before she was even born," Williams said. "Just seeing my mom and my grandmother and my whole family just take somebody else's child in and trying to give them the same life that me and my sisters had."
Starting a charitable foundation has been a longtime dream for Williams, who noted that one of his primary goals is to help children like his sister have the kind of life that he did growing up.
"This has always been a dream ever since I was little," Williams said. "I just love helping people out, and now that I've got the platform and position to help others, that's really something that I wanted to do."
Although Williams has not been able to take the field with his teammates as he recovers from an ACL injury, several players came to show their support and helped him raise money for the Javonte Williams Foundation. Russell Wilson, Justin Simmons, Pat Surtain II, Baron Browning and Mike Boone all attended the event, and some even auctioned off their signed jerseys and threw touchdown passes to bidders.
Williams said that building his foundation has helped him during his recovery, as he has found a new passion to focus on while he works his way back to the field.
"Even though I'm down — [with] my knee hurt, I can't do what I love, play football — I can still help other people out," Williams said. "I feel like that's the reason God gave me this down time, just to open my eyes up."
