Doug Williams returns home to the Bayou The St.Petersburg Times, published 30 November 1981 On Sunday, we saw a Doug Williams that his enemies should've been able to appreciate. In the various situations, throwing the tpe of passes that should've been thrown ... so often, dead on target. Let's not forget the 50-yard rocket, which seemed a sure touchdown, that was dropped by tight end Jimmie Giles. It was indeed a game worth kisses from even the most fierce among the anti- Williams people. "After 13 weeks, now the season starts over," Williams said, referring to the Bucs' tie atop their division. "Next Sunday is the opener against Atlanta. If we win the next three, we're division champions. It's in our hands now." The Green Bay Packers did Detroit and Tampa Bay a skyscraping favor Sunday, beating Minnesota to plunge the Vikings into the three-way knot. All have 7-6 records. All have three games to go. Like Williams said, it's a new season. As the jazz bands were just tuning up for a last night's work on Bourbon Street, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were walking out of the Superdome in a three- way tie with Minnesota and Detroit for the NFC Central Division lead. They had the look of winners. As Williams approached the exit to where the buses stood, any roar of the diesel engines was drowned by shrill cheers for the Bucs' quarterback. These were his people. His mother and brother and neighborhood buddies from that little upstate hometown of Zachary. Everywhere, orange No. 12 T-shirts. "I wish my dad could've been here, but he just had leg surgery," Williams said. "Saturday night, I was down at Howard Johnson's with just about everybody I've known in my life. I knew there was a lot of support up there in the stands. "I called my dad, too. He was kind of down, having to miss this game so near our hometown. But I know we watched on TV and I know he's smiling right now. It was a good game for all 45 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We got behind, then we played like a team that wants to win a championship." Williams borrowed my ballpoint pen and scribbled his Tampa phone number on the back of a card- board game pass that dangled from the shirt button of Reggie Collier, a remarkable young quarterback from the University of Southern Mississippi. "Call me and we'll talk," Williams told him. They shook hands and smiled warmly at one another. Until Sunday, Williams and Collier had never met.. The kid is also a black quarterback. When Collier ran for 151 yards to lead Southern Mississippi's 58-14 wrecking of Florida State two weeks ago, Williams sent a telegram and asked the college junior to attend Tampa Bay's game in New Orleans. "It's been a great day for me," Collier told him. "You've been my idol for a long, long time. I'm so thrilled to know you. And, yes, I will be calling your number." As Bucs players and coaches boarded those buses for a ride to their chartered airliner at the New Orleans airport, Williams posed for a barrage of family cameras. He hugged family and friends. He signed autographs and pat- ted adoring children on the head. Most of these people were black. If you watched, you realized how important this black quarterback is to them. Williams was their idol. They looked at him the way New York Yankee fans used to look at Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggiyo. They had seen Doug Williams in his best of days.