As the 49ers prepare for their divisional rivalry game against the Seattle Seahawks this upcoming weekend, it’s readily apparent there’s still plenty of bad blood between the teams — and not just limited to players who will take the field Sunday.
Former 49ers nose tackle Ian Williams took to his Twitter account Monday, and didn’t hold back from calling out one Seahawks player in particular. The current NBC Sports Bay Area analyst saw his NFL career come to an end due to ankle complications originating from a now-illegal chop block by current Seahawks guard J.R. Sweezy in Week 2 of the 2013 season.
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Williams underwent surgery for a fractured lower left leg and missed the final 14 games of that 2013 season. He re-fractured the same leg after appearing in nine games in 2014, but he returned to play in all 16 games in 2015 before developing the career-ending complications during the following offseason.
In 2016, the NFL passed a rule that eliminated all forms of chop blocks, and the timing wasn’t a coincidence.
"That was my first start, up there in Seattle,” Williams told NBC Sports Bay Area on Monday night. “I just felt that the play was dirty. Looking back at the play, it was really dirty. The league, the next year, they make the rule change, and the first play of the rule change that they show to the teams before the season starts is my play. The guy J.R. Sweezy dives at my ankle."
In his current capacity as an NBC Sports Bay Area analyst, Williams has been pouring through game film in preparation for the 49ers-Seahawks game, which prompted his tweet earlier in the day.
San Francisco 49ers
"I'm going back looking at film just to get a sense of Seattle for this week, and I'm seeing more of it, and it just angers me. So that's why I tweeted it out, but [Sweezy]'s legit one of the dirtiest players I have ever played against."
Sweezy’s career has taken a few turns since that fateful encounter with Williams. He signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2016, but he was released this past June after two subpar seasons. In August, he re-signed with the Seahawks.
"Obviously the guy signed in Tampa Bay, and he didn't do well down there,” Williams said. “You know, they got him up out of there in two years, so that's why he's back in Seattle doing, 'Hey JR, we need you to cut people. That's what we're gonna do.'"
Williams still blames Sweezy for the eventual end of his career, and maintains the Seattle guard still has a bad reputation across the league.
"I didn't really verbally talk to him,” Williams recalled, “but just on the field, that spoke volumes right there, and that spoke enough."
When the 49ers’ defense takes the field against Sweezy and the rest of the Seahawks’ offense Sunday, Williams obviously won’t be with them. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t hoping his former team sends a message to the player he views as responsible for shortening his career.
"I'm just hoping [the 49ers] play a good game,” Williams said. “I hope they give [Sweezy] all they can. I hope DeForest [Buckner] gives him two, three sacks, I hope Arik [Armstead], you know, slaps him up a little bit. And then Earl [Mitchell] can go in there and give him some forearms and stuff like that, but I'm just hoping they'll do a great job and stop the run."