Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams made a surprising move when he announced via social media that he is taking a leave of absence from social media to concentrate on winning a national championship.
Williams says he wants to “get his mind right” before the season starts. He also admitted he doesn’t run most of his social media pages.
Williams was live-streaming when he made the announcement and some fans thought he was joking, but he emphasized that he was serious.
Naturally, most Alabama fans were thrilled with the announcement that the star wide receiver was putting his team ahead of his own needs.
Interestingly, he would do this considering that some teams are struggling with players being on social media too much.
It was just about a week ago when Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze talked about how some of his players spent more time on social media than they did sleeping.
Although he didn’t ban his players from using social media, clearly, it’s becoming a problem. Freeze even hinted that the reason programs are starting to have issues with players being on social media is because of NIL.
A lot of players are wanting to get their name and their brands out there to receive more NIL money. Williams just signed a contract with Nike about a month ago for an undisclosed amount of money, which is maybe another reason why he doesn’t need to be on social media much because he has a contract with a large brand name.
But it has to bring Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer some comfort in knowing that one of the leaders on his team is willing to set this kind of example in order to win a championship and where his mindset is coming into this season.