In the week leading up to the game, Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers talked some trash about the Lions, so a reporter asked Williams about the comments. While wearing a custom Naruto headband and a Naruto jacket, Williams told the reporter that he didn’t care. He was done with talking football drama and just wanted to go home and play Pokemon. When the reporter pronounced it “pokeman,” Williams corrected him. “You can’t disrespect Pokemon like that,” he said with more than a little whimsy in his voice.

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When it came time for the game, Williams was ready. His 16 run attempts for 72 yards and two touchdowns helped the Detroit Lions knock Rodgers and the Packers out of playoff contention. After the game, he wore that nifty Pokemon hat shaped like Gengar as an expression of his love of the Pokemon franchise, possibly having something to do with his interaction with the reporter a week earlier, or maybe he’s simply a huge fan.

Williams’ Pokemon hat during an NFL press conference was just the nerdy bookend of the game. When the Lions’ offense took the field, NBC ran a quick package of each player introducing themselves to the viewer in the lower third of the screen. While wearing the same Naruto headband mentioned before, Williams introduced himself as “First swag kazekage, leader of the Hidden Village of the Den.” That may seem like nonsense without proper knowledge of Naruto lore. Kazekage is the leader of Hidden Sand Village in both the anime and the manga it’s based on. Williams simply took some inspiration from his favorite anime and put his own spin on it for the player introductions.

It shouldn’t be surprising that professional athletes are huge anime and game fans. In August 2022, New Orleans Pelicans superstar Zion Williamson of the NBA, who is also a Naruto fan, estimated in an interview with GQ that “around 80% of players in the league are into anime; they just won’t admit it.” This current generation of Millennial and GenZ professional athletes was raised with Toonami and Adult Swim blocks of anime. They grew up exchanging Dragon Ball Z VHS tapes or DVDs. Some of them probably grew up watching anime supercuts on YouTube. If Zion estimates that 80% of NBA players are into anime, then it could be just as true of many NFL stars, too. And in time, as anime takes greater hold in North America, there might be a lot more than that.

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