Vikings: Death takes a big toll on Williamson

Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

Troy Williamson has returned to the Vikings.

The Vikings receiver returned after attending his grandmother's funeral and wished the Vikings allowed him to stay away longer.

By Judd Zulgad, Star Tribune

Last update: November 7, 2007 - 9:01 PM

Troy Williamson returned to the Vikings on Wednesday but his thoughts remained at home. The Vikings receiver had missed the past week to be with his family after the death of his grandmother, and he also was able to spend time with a brother who was severely injured in a September car accident.

Williamson expressed no regret about missing Sunday's victory against San Diego -- "I'd throw this football thing away for my family," he said -- and made it clear that given a choice he would have stayed in South Carolina longer.

"I know it's a business and I know [the Vikings have] got other obligations when it comes to them and their family also," Williamson said.

"I know how I feel towards mine. ... I feel like I wouldn't have been overdoing it if I had stayed home a little longer but you've got other people and their opinions."

Williamson, 24, didn't sound upset with the Vikings so much as he did conflicted by the pull of his job against his obligation to his mother, Shirley, and his nine brothers and sisters.

Williamson left the Vikings early last week after learning his maternal grandmother, Celestine Williamson, had died at the age of 72. Williamson spent the week in Aiken, S.C., helping to coordinate efforts to get family members home from a variety of locales, ranging from California to New Jersey to Italy. As many as 75 people returned, according to Williamson, and he funded about 30 of the trips.

"This is a grandma I was always around," growing up, he said. "She taught me pretty much everything I know from cooking to driving to playing cards. I pretty much learned that from my grandma."

Celestine Williamson's death isn't the only reason Troy Williamson has a heavy heart these days. His 29-year-old brother, Carlton, has been in and out of a coma since being involved in a single-car accident in late September.

"He had some chairs on the back of his truck for one of my homeboy's wedding," Williamson said. "He was taking it to them. He was going too fast around the corner and the truck ended up flipping. It flipped like three times, and he ended up flying out of it."

Carlton, who was not wearing a seat belt, is in a hospital in Augusta, Ga., which is near Aiken. Williamson spent a little more than a day with his brother after the accident and another four days during the Vikings' bye week last month. This most recent trip gave Troy another few days to see his brother.

"We get some signs that he's doing good one day and then it's back down," Williamson said. "It's fluctuating. Right now, he's just pretty much comatose."

Williamson accepted the fact he could not spend more time at Carlton's bedside in the weeks after the accident, but following his grandma's death he decided football could no longer take precedence.

"I tried to put my brother's thing on the back burner, but when this came up I had to get up out of here and try to take some time," he said. "When it came to my grandma, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to see her anymore, I knew I had to go home and handle this stuff pretty much for my family and my mom. My mom took it hardest out of all my aunts and uncles because she was the one there taking care of my grandma, trying to make sure my grandma was straight and stuff."

It was Shirley Williamson who finally told Troy it was all right to return to Minnesota. Shirley remains in Aiken with four of Troy's younger brothers and sisters.

Williamson, meanwhile, will try to return his focus to the football field. The seventh-overall pick in the 2005 draft, knows that isn't going to be easy.

"It's really been hard for me," he said. "I was glad just to go home and see my family. It was just something that helped me out a little bit, and I just have to keep on pushing through the season."

Judd Zulgad • jzulgad@startribune.com