CHICAGO — By the time Demond Williams Jr. invited Washington’s offensive linemen to take aim at the Metropolitan Grill menu, the past winter's drama was months in the rearview.
That gathering, the week of the Huskies’ spring game, wasn’t the first Williams has shared with the group responsible for protecting him as he enters his second full season as UW’s starting quarterback.
But it might have been the most bountiful.
“We ordered a ton of appetizers,” senior center Landen Hatchett said.
“I’ve never seen that much steak,” Williams said, marveling in particular at sophomore John Mills’ selection of a porterhouse, “which I'm pretty sure is 24 ounces, and he ate it all in one sitting.”
The relationship between the starting quarterback and his offensive line is crucial for every team at every level of football; by picking up a dinner tab here or there, Williams is following a time-honored playbook for how QB1 should take care of the big fellas. But these interactions are perhaps of greater interest at this particular moment — for this particular quarterback and this particular Washington Huskies team — because of that 48-hour period back in January when it seemed Williams would be buying steak at some other school.
If Williams’ portal dalliance is not yet ancient history for some interested observers, those within UW’s facility generally suggest it’s a non-issue. It’s only when he’s asked about it, Hatchett said, that he thinks about it at all.
“I honestly forget about the whole situation,” Hatchett said.