A gun incident involving Jameson Williams produced an internal police review in Detroit, but no charge ended up surfacing in connection with the fall development. That still left the blossoming wide receiver open to an NFL suspension, but he is in the clear there now as well.
Williams will not face NFL discipline here, per ESPN.com. The Lions wideout has already been suspended under the NFL’s gambling and PED policies, but he will not be kept off the field under the personal conduct umbrella.
A strange early-morning sequence October 8 involving Williams handcuffed led to the former first-round pick being released, only to see an investigation into the police department’s conduct take place. Officers placed Williams in cuffs and nearly booked him on a gun charge. Williams was to be taken to jail before being released from custody shortly prior to being booked. This incident occurred after midnight Oct. 8, 2024.
An officer’s suspected effort to have Williams evade an arrest due to his Lions status was part of the investigation, but an internal review cleared the Alabama alum of a concealed weapons charge. Months later, Williams will not see a fourth season interrupted. The former No. 12 overall pick already missed most of his rookie season due to injury and lost time due to the gambling ban in 2023. The above-referenced PED suspension cost Williams two games last season, but he broke through for a 1,000-yard slate anyway.
Williams and his brother were pulled over in Detroit, and the stop led to Williams — the passenger in the vehicle — admitting he was in possession of a gun without a concealed pistol license. Williams, 23, identified himself as a Lions player to police at the time of the early-morning arrest. A sergeant who arrived to back up the arresting officers soon made several calls to superiors asking if Williams needed to be arrested on the concealed weapon charge. (The sergeant’s cellphone wallpaper included a Lions logo.) The aforementioned internal review cleared this officer of wrongdoing, and Williams has now avoided a criminal charge and an NFL ban.
The Lions will have until shortly after the draft to pick up Williams’ fifth-year option. While Williams has not proven especially reliable, the rising team has shown patience with him through the spate of early-career issues. He finished with eight regular-season touchdowns, adding a ninth in the Lions’ shootout divisional-round loss to the Commanders. Williams is now extension-eligible as well, but the option could keep him on his rookie deal through 2026.
With Williams having only one season as a consistent receiving weapon on his resume and the team having Amon-Ra St. Brown on a $30MM-per-year deal, it would make sense if Detroit exercised the option and gave Williams a “prove it” year of sorts in 2025. That will be the next step on the talented wideout’s career timeline, as the Lions will presumably be curious to see if he can steer clear of any further off-field trouble now that this incident is in the rearview mirror.
Please let this be a sign we finally get a Detroit superbowl.
What? Is English your second language?
Is Williams a Felon who can’t legally possess a firearm? If not this should’ve never been an issue to begin with.
Non-felons still need a permit to purchase a gun or for concealed carry.
A permit to exercise a constitutionally protected right? Gtfoh
I’m really sorry you can’t live in the wild west in some states and that you might have to experience the barest minimum of regulations that any responsible adult can pass easily.
Let me ask you Oooof, what’s the difference in a carrying a gun outside your shirt vs. inside your shirt. Oh that’s right, the only differences are if you report to the gov’t and pay some fees. ‘It’s illegal unless you pay some money, then it’s legal’, yeah that makes sense smh.
Both of those require a permit.
Yes in gun hating states like MI, CA, NY, etc…more and more states are slowly recognizing ‘Constitutional Carry’. So no, there is in fact no permits required for either in plenty of states.
Well, this story is about an arrest in Michigan, so those other states are beside the point.
New York and California also have among the lowest gun deaths per capita. Funny how that works.
Exactly Losrojos…I’m a 2nd amendment purist and hate hearing “I support the 2nd amendment, But”…even felons are technically having their constitutional rights violated.
The second amendment says “well regulated” and you claim to be a “purist” while complaining about the barest of minimum regulations.
Nice try with the “well regulated” claim…a well regulated militia is law abiding private citizens and on top of that there are about 18-20 million retired military that would take up arms at the drop of a hat. The first shots fired at Lexington and Concord were just private citizens or also known as “Militia”.
Regulations are laws. Law abiding citizens need laws to abide by.
Well Said. The key is Law abiding people need laws to abide by. A law abiding person wouldn’t need a gun in his car at 2 AM. As long as you purchase it legally and keep it at home, Or transport it in a ” Law abiding manner” Which are described in every state and are fairly easy to understand there isn’t usually a problem.
“A permit to exercise a constitutionally protected right? Gtfoh”
Bring it to the Supreme Court, then. Because as of now, it is a felony in many states to own a gun without a permit and/or conceal carry without a license.
That’s the problem, squishy Republicans kept caving to gun hating liberals and they turn that little inch into a mile over the decades. Liberals are great at slowy etching away a people’s rights for things they hate, gotta respect their patience unfortunately. It’s beyond the Supreme Court overturning anything at this point.
“Liberals are great at slowy etching away a people’s rights for things they hate.” Buddy, that’s some A+ projection right there, while conservatives do everything they can to do away with reproductive rights, among many other things.
“Gun hating liberals” is such a buzzphrase and a clear giveaway that you ascribe to a very specific narrative. Almost zero democrats hate guns to the point of wanting to make them illegal and pry them out of your hands, they just want a felon with a rapsheet as long as his arm to not be able to walk into the nearest firearm store and walk out with a semi-automatic and a hundred rounds in a matter of 5 minutes.
“Liberals are great at slowy etching away a people’s rights for things they hate”
Right, like abortion, LGBTQ rights, a proper education, a democracy, etc. Oh wait, President Elon is doing that.
He legally possessed the gun and was in his brother’s car who had a CCW. It was bad police work.
How is bad police work? Yes he legally possessed the gun. He admitted he had it but didn’t have a CCW. Gun was under seat. Did not belong to his brother and a CCW is for the gun owner not who you are with. Hi brother having one has nothing to do with case.
I hesitated on replying here, but I’d like to say this, for what it’s worth (which, like most of my commentary, isn’t very much):
This is an interesting debate that many of you are intentionally sabotaging with name-calling. You guys could get further in at least explaining how you think by being more open at least to the presentation of arguments before shooting them down (no pun intended), even while still maintaining disagreement. Broad swipes are just getting in the way of your presenting viable arguments, on either side.
It’s a good debate to have, even if there cannot be 100% agreement. Maybe there are other things that be partially agreed on, if we were at least more open to listening with consideration. This isn’t meant at one person, but for everybody.
Got a feeling that as soon as Williams costs the Lions a win vs a NFC North rival the Detroit police will arrest him for any minor offense…lol.
The proof that the sergeant’s possible Lions fandom could have, in my mind, would be shown in how he has handled similar cases in the past.
So, there really are two questions here:
1. Is this charge a mandatory jail-able offense (either by that department’s normal operating procedure or by statute)?
2. How does that officer normally handle that charge?
Williams was very cooperative and truthful on the stop, so if this charge is not a mandatory jail offense, it’s not surprising that the police were lenient with him. If officer discretion is enough here that the officer can decide, based on circumstances, to jail the offender or simply cite him (or not even charge him), then we must look at whether or not the sergeant normally takes that course of action. If the sergeant normally arrests people for this charge, but didn’t in this one case, then the bias would appear to be there. If he normally does not arrest on this charge, then it would appear irrelevant.
The first officer (the one who initiated the action) doesn’t appear to know who Williams is on bodycam, so I don’t think that his bias is relevant. The sergeant should know whether to arrest or not when the officer asked, so that’s not fantastic. It appears though that he was trying to get Williams off from jail time by getting a superior’s take. Whether it was because Williams is a Lion or because he was cooperative is the big question. If he’s allowed to make that decision, and if it’s normal for that sergeant to let people be cited without arrest on this charge, then it doesn’t seem that his Lions fanhood is to blame.