Not only did wide receiver Ke’Shawn Williams make the Bengals' Opening Day roster as one of their primary returners, he secured it last week in a preseason finale played, as the crow flies, a punt return from his high school in Northwest Philadelphia.

Not only did Williams make a nifty move at the three-yard line to YAC in an 11-yard touchdown catch, he caught an aunt, an uncle, and a cousin on the scoreboard as his contingent of 50 or so family and friends celebrated scattered throughout Lincoln Financial Field in their Bengals' shirts.

Not only did Williams perform on the big stage, he had spoken the 53 into existence into a microphone years before as a senior at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

"Every day senior year, a couple of seniors would have to give a speech to the school," Williams says. "I think about it every day. It's kind of like my motto. Just getting ready for every moment and opportunity. You might not get many, but when you do, you perform."

Williams told his classmates about the conversation he had with his dad, how he counseled him to take one last shot at football before walking away for good and embracing basketball.

At a 5-9, 185ish pounds, it was unlikely that Williams, a first-team basketball player in Philly's highly-regarded Inter-Academic League, could follow such IAL stars as Jerome Allen, Wayne Ellington and Steve Goodrich into the NBA.

But, as Williams tells you, "Philly is a city of guards," and he was a slasher who could distribute and score. He injured his shoulder during football season a couple of times, his father recalls, and he still became a 1,000-point career scorer at the heart of the school's basketball resurgence.

Maybe the NBA wouldn't be calling. But there was Princeton talking to him about playing basketball. And there was more Ivy League behind the Tigers in Harvard, Columbia and Penn getting interested. Maybe bigger programs, too, if he walked away from football.

"When he was playing AAU, every year the coach would ask me, 'What's it going to be? Football or basketball? " says Kenneth Williams. "I'm not going to force my kids to do anything. I like the balance they had playing different sports."

His son wondered what basketball could be, free of football's hard master of time. He would just hoop, he decided. But he went to his dad first. And his dad …  well, 5-9 was just kind of small for basketball, and Ke'Shawn always seemed to make something happen in football.

"That's something I really appreciated. That he just didn't leave football without talking to me about it," Kenneth Williams says. "I told him that he ought to give it one more shot. Injuries happen. It's part of the game, and he just seemed to be a natural football player. And he loved it. He was four years old and he wanted to play football. He was too young. You had to be five. When he went to middle school, he just loved football."

That one more shot?

"It's like he fell in love with football again," Kenneth Williams says.

That junior year he set the Inter-Academic League single-season records with a triple crown of 67 catches, 1,066 yards, and 11 touchdowns on his way to becoming the league's all-time career receiver.

"My dad encouraged me," Ke'Shawn Williams says. "He's the biggest factor going back to play football, taking another chance at really getting to where I wanted to go. He knew I loved the game. I had some unfortunate injuries that made it tough for me. But he knew I shouldn't give up on it that fast."

Instead of Princeton basketball, it was now Wake Forest football. When he transferred, he took part in another resurgence in another sport at another school. Indiana football under Curt Cignetti.

Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons, no doubt aware of Williams' pro day in Bloomington last spring (4.51-second 40-yard dash with a 39-inch vertical), couldn't have been all that surprised when he walked into Paycor Stadium last October as a Steelers' college free agent in the Thank You Cleveland Game.

It will be recalled just after kicker Evan McPherson gave the Bengals a 30-24 lead with about six minutes left, Williams ran the Steelers back into the game with a 37-yard bolt of a kick return before Joe Flacco steered the Bengals to a 33-31 win.

You know Simmons took note of that. It held up as the longest return against his unit that ended up being ranked the fourth-best in Pro Football Focus' special teams rankings. (His 91 total kick return yards in that game is still a career-high).

Two months later, on the day the Bengals put punt returner Charlie Jones on season-ending injured reserve, the Steelers cut Williams, and the Bengals pounced. His first three games as a Bengal at the end of last season, with a 43-yard punt return to go with a 31-yard kick return, probably figured into the roster spot as much as his work in this preseason.

"When Charlie got hurt, it worked out perfectly for us," Simmons says. "Physical. Tough. Ran hard. Good change of direction. Made good decisions," Simmons says.  "It helped what he did against us, sure. We had direct knowledge of him.

"He's been productive since he got here. We have a couple of (returners) we feel comfortable with. I'm very pleased, very comfortable with who we have, and we have a history with Ke'Shawn."

They also had a history with Jones and his three return touchdowns in each of the last three seasons, but Williams and fellow wide receiver Dohnte Meyers have carried the day.

"I wasn't sure where I fell in the order," says Williams of a cut-down day complicated by his touchdown and pair of long receptions by Jones. "But I felt like I had done all I could. I actually got to play with them and against them and I made plays in every single game. That may have held some weight in the decision, but also showing up again and making plays throughout the preseason also (helped)."

Kenneth Williams is still trying to get his arms around last week's Philadelphia Story.

"Hometown kid," his dad says. "I still don't believe it really happened. Surreal. It's like I'm still in a dream and I haven't woken up."

Back at his locker in Cincy, ensconced in reality next to a wide receiver who did play at Princeton, Andrei Iosivas, Williams can still deliver that senior address because he thinks about that talk with his dad every day.

"Perseverance," says Williams of his message that day.  "Life is going to be challenging. You can't quit as soon as stuff gets hard. It might not look good in the moment, but if you stay persistent and you keep on working, it will eventually turn around."

It looks like he got a pretty good return on his own speech.