Eagles Release Bernard Williams 29 Years After Final Game in Bizarre Transaction

The Eagles released former first-round pick Bernard Williams on Thursday after the offensive tackle spent nearly three decades on the NFL’s suspended list.

Williams, who was selected with the No. 14 in the 1994 NFL draft, has not played in a game since Christmas Eve in ’94 when the Eagles lost to the Bengals, 33-30. In July ’95, the league suspended Williams for six games after he tested positive for marijuana. Three months later, he was suspended for the remainder of the season, and he never played in another NFL game. 

Philadelphia’s unusual transaction involving the 51-year-old Williams comes after league officials made a push to remove old players from several reserve lists, according to a team spokesman. Although Williams never applied for reinstatement to the NFL, he continued playing football in the Canadian Football League, the XFL and the Arena League. 

In the CFL, Williams played for the British Columbia Lions (’00) and the Toronto Argonauts (’03 to ’06 ). In between his CFL stints, he joined the XFL’s Memphis Maniax (’01) and the Arena League’s Detroit Fury in ’01 and ’02. 

In his rookie season in Philadelphia, Williams started all 16 games and earned a spot on the NFL’s All-Rookie team. He is one of six players—Tra Thomas, Corey Simon, Lane Johnson, Carson Wentz and DeVonta Smith—in franchise history to start every game as a rookie in the past four decades.