I Dislike Your Favorite Team

We got a chance to ask a few questions of Rodney Williams, the winner of last night's episode of PvJ. Rodney had quite the experience--tackling Eric Dickerson, getting his eye poked by Kevin Willis, and enduring the endless shittalking of Vince Coleman. Here are some of his thoughts.


What's your athletic background? Sports in high school, etc.

I played football, basketball and ran track. I was the best at football but I moved a lot so the summers it was hard to go to practice so I focused on basketball. I went to Fort Valley State University to play basketball but got hurt 1st semester. I was a 3 pointer shooter but defensive minded.

Now, really, what were you thinking when you said you were going to kick Roy Jones Jr's ass? I mean, seriously.

I was hyping myself up. He is a living legend and I have so much respect but I had to pump up myself. I wasn't scared but I needed to convince myself that I was going to go in there and try to shock the world.

Did you have a strategy for the challenges? It seemed like you tried to be super aggressive in all the challenges--for some of them that really helped, and others it seemed like it hurt you a bit. Was that your game plan, or is that just the way you do things in general?

I didn't really have any strategy for the challenges. I just needed to react and show that I wasn't scared. That helped with some but with others it hurt me. I was not in shape at all. I just got a call saying we want you to be on the show and you need to come in 2 weeks. So I had just had shoulder surgery (right labium) and my arm was still in a sling so I could really condition myself. So I just wanted to be aggressive and give it my all. But now that I think about it and I have watched it, there are so many different things I would have done.

What was it like to plant Eric Dickerson on his ass? Do you think the other Joes were being too tentative in that first challenge?

It was AMAZING!!!!!!!! I could always tackle but when I saw how big he was I thought to myself to wrap up. I didn't think I would be able to lay his ass out!!!!! I don't think the other Joes were too tentative. They went after him and he out ran them or gave them the stiff arm. I didn't give him a chance and attacked.

What happened against Roy--it was clear that you were very tired, but did he also rock you a bit?

Like a fool I went up to Roy and tried to impose my size and thought that the best defense was to keep swinging. After a minute and a half of punching my shoulder started to hurt and I had no energy. That is when he kept punching me for the next minute and some change. All I saw was white and I knew that if he would have hit me with any kind of serious power shot I would have been knocked out so I took a knee. But for the second fight I had to make up so much time I didn't have any time to be playing around and we were rumbling. He caught me with a perfect right hook and I felt it but it didn't wobble me. The one punch that I felt they didn't show and that was when he hit me in the stomach. I made a noise like I can't even describe. It wasn't so much that it hurt it was just that I wasn't in shape and he got me dead in the middle.

Talk a little bit about trying to board and play one-on-one against Kevin Willis. It seemed like he really beat you up, not even counting the finger the eye.

Kevin Willis can still play in the NBA. He was so strong and long. When I was playing against him he altered my whole game because he could block it so easy but I figured I was quicker and I could just out run him. The rebounds, I didn't have a chance. Between his strength and elbows I had no chance. But I wasn't going to quit. I didn't come across the country to quit. If I would have gone down, I would have gone down giving my all.

Was Vince Coleman the biggest trash-talker? He certainly seemed like he was jawing the most.

He talked so much shit. I couldn't stand it. I mean I don't watch baseball and didn't know who he was and he just kept jawing at me. I told him that he should have respect and stop talking about mothers and fathers. He is just lucky that he played baseball and not football because I would have tried to break him in half and make him eat the words he was saying.

How long did it take the shoot the show? What were your impressions of the way it came together?

We were there for 3-4 days and filmed at night. It is a great feeling to see the show put together but I still don't know how I feel about it. So much happened. But I am glad that I was able to be on the show and compete. Matt Thompson was a great competitor and it sucked that one of us had to lose and even though I hate to lose, I would not have been sad if I would have lost to him.

Finally, what did you do with the jerseys?

I haven't gotten them yet; I had to wait till the show aired so I hope to have them by midweek next week. I am going to put them in frames and put it in the basement. I earned them.


UPDATE: Rodney is willing to answer more questions, so if any of you viewers have questions about Rodney's performance, or about PvJ in general, you can either drop them in the comments here, or email them to