Super Bowl 2026: How former Giant, Jet Leonard Williams found a home with the Seahawks

SAN JOSE, Calif. — When Leonard Williams talks about the obstacles he had to overcome to get to Super Bowl LX with the Seahawks, New Yorkers think they get it.

Those first 4 1⁄2 years when he arrived among us as the sixth overall pick for the Jets, they missed the playoffs on the last day of his rookie season and then never had a winning record again with him? Dark times.

Then the four years he spent with the Giants after he was traded there in 2019, finally getting to the postseason with them in 2022, only to be traded again when the following season got off to an improbable slow start? Tough.

We were right along on that ride with him.

But that’s not even close to what Williams is referring to.

When he opens up to his new teammates, it usually isn’t about the losing in New York. It’s about growing up with a father in prison for most of his childhood. It’s about being homeless at times. It’s about not having much of a relationship with his faith until very recently.

That stuff with the Jets and Giants? Please.

“Honestly, it just makes me play with more passion, more heart, more want-to, all the things that I’ve been through,” Williams said this past week of his hardscrabble start to life as he and his team prepared for the biggest game of their careers. “It’s just been all fuel. Not in a bad way, though. None of it has made me have any hatred or anything like that. It’s just made me grow more resilient, stronger. And it makes moments like these feel even more special.”

They are more special because he now has a new family. He recently married his longtime girlfriend, Hailey, whom he first met in college at USC, and they are expecting their first child in a matter of weeks. He has forged a close bond with his father-in-law and sought advice from him about life and for this week’s experience; it’s helpful that he just happens to be Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott, a former Jet himself. And he has felt more at home in Seattle than he ever did in either of his stints with the two New York teams.

Super Seahawk

He already was a terrific player and a good teammate when he was with the Jets and Giants, but he somehow has managed to improve at both of those elements since arriving with the Seahawks. This season he was a cornerstone for one of the league’s top defenses and named to his first All-Pro team. At age 31 and in his 11th season, he is playing the best football of his life.

“He’s been an A-plus-plus in everything,” Seattle coach Mike Macdonald told Newsday. “We challenged him a little bit last year to become more of a vocal leader on the team and assert his personality, but he works his butt off. Great teammate, great person.”

The Seahawks weren’t sure that was whom they were getting when they sent a future second-round pick to the Giants (which eventually was used to select safety Tyler Nubin) for Williams. There were rumblings that Williams might not have been the hardest of workers, that he was aloof, that he was coasting on his talent alone.

There is no doubt that Williams has a unique personality; a quick visit to see the many offseason adventures he posts about on Instagram will tell you that. But rather than fight against those forces the way his former teams tried to, the Seahawks have embraced them.

“You hear some of these things from New York and it’s like I don’t know what you are talking about. The guy has been awesome,” Macdonald said. “But we have empowered him, we believe in him. I think he realized we thought he could be a tremendous player and we were going to get him to that point. And he has earned it. The guy is a freak show.”

Full-circle moment

Williams has reciprocated to the team and the community. He and Hailey have been working to give back to Seattle as much as they can. For Hailey, the daughter of an NFL star, that is something she grew up providing. For Williams, it is something he grew up receiving.

“We’ve been able to have the opportunity even this year to give back in ways that really relate to me,” he said of spending time and resources on helping the homeless in Seattle. “It’s surreal for me to be in moments like this now because I was a homeless kid at points. And I think it’s a huge message for me to go to shelters and things like that and let people know that I was once in their position. You can tell it means a lot to them.”

It means a lot to fellow football players, too.

“He has shared some of that with the guys,” Macdonald said of Williams’ childhood. “That’s what makes him so special. It’s for him, but it’s really to share it with his teammates to let them know that, hey, we’ve all come from different spots, all had our adversities. What matters is that we are here now.”

Williams’ father, Clenon, had been out of jail for a while and was able to see Williams play when he was with the Jets, but he is back in prison now, Williams said, and won’t be able to attend this game. But Super Bowl LX will be hosted by the team his father-in-law helped make champions.

That’s helpful because it means Hailey, with a due date of March 16, can stay in her family’s home in the San Francisco area leading up to the game at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday rather than a hotel. It’s also nice to have Lott so close by.

“He’s been a big part of my growth as a man and my growth as a player,” Williams said. “Even in times like this where this is my first time going to a Super Bowl, he is one of those guys I am hitting up for information and to lean on. He’s been to five Super Bowls, so he understands.”

Lott’s best advice? Enjoy it.

So that’s what Williams has been doing. He has sat through countless media sessions this past week, continues to smile and has relished every practice and team dinner possible. On Sunday, he might even be a big reason why the Seahawks hoist a Lombardi Trophy.

It took a while to get here and at times it looked improbable, growing up bouncing between California and Michigan and Florida, growing up with the Jets and the Giants. But now he is here.

“Honestly, even just being able to be drafted, to be in this situation and play in the NFL, is already a blessing,” Williams said. “To now be here on the biggest stage is a dream come true.”

The once-homeless kid finally has found his home.