You read that right. Former Kansas City Chiefs star safety Eric Berry has an uncle that once played in the NFL. And by once, I mean almost 30 years ago for the Philadelphia Eagles. His name is Bernard Williams.
Here's the crazy thing: he only played for a single year in the NFL, and yet he was apparently still on the Eagles' roster until last Thursday when they officially waived him. The full story can be found here.
Apparently, after Williams was suspended by the NFL for a failed drug test, he never applied for reinstatement, which means he just stayed in roster limbo for 29 years. It seems hard to believe that nobody noticed until recently, which makes me wonder how many other players are just sitting around on reserve rosters from decades past.
Former Chiefs safety Eric Berry has an uncle who played in the NFL almost 30 years ago. He was still officially on a roster until recently.
According to a report, NFL teams are apparently cleaning up those old lists and that's how Williams was found.
It's funny that he's related to Berry, considering Berry's end to his career was equally precarious. He was released by the Kansas City Chiefs after the 2019 season, but didn't officially retire. We're coming up on five years since he last played and now there is even some Hall of Fame chatter about him.
I don't really know how it works, but if Williams was officially on the team's roster, does that mean he received a Super Bowl ring after 2017? Talk about how Thanksgiving dinner is going to go this year for that family. "Hey Eric, guess what came in the mail last week?"
It would be all fun and games until Eric revealed he was actually on the Chiefs' reserve/retired list this entire time and he had two rings of his own. Hey, if a guy can be on a roster for 29 years and nobody noticed, I'd believe anything at this point.