Sonny Bill Williams has spoken publicly about the reasons behind his controversial exit from the NRL, slamming his former club the Bulldogs and praising his “brothers” Khoder Nasser and Anthony Mundine.
Williams walked out of a five-year, $400,000-a-season contract with the Bulldogs to join French rugby union, and said he was nervous about the move but knew he was doing “the right thing”.
“I love rugby league. I was one of those young kids that used to love watching everything about rugby league,” Williams told Channel Nine’s NRL Footy Show.
“But now, being at the club and seeing what’s gone on behind the scenes and that, I see that it’s just a business.
“They don’t care about me. They treat us like cattle. That’s the honest truth.”
Nasser – the man widely rumoured to be behind Williams’s move to French rugby union club Toulon – is believed to act as manager for Williams and rugby league star-turned-boxer Mundine.
Williams credited both for turning his life around.
“I’ve known Khoder and Anthony for five years and they’ve been two of the best people I’ve ever met in life, without a doubt,” Williams said.
“Whenever I needed something, they were always there, they’re my brothers.
“I chose Khoder, he didn’t choose me. I’m my own man.
“My advice that I’ve sought from Khoder has steered me in the clear. I don’t drink anymore, whereas before I used to drink. I don’t do drugs, I don’t smoke.
“He’s my brother, he’s not my manager.
“I see who is there for Sonny Bill the footy player, not Sonny Bill the person.”
Williams said he had not been happy with life at the Bulldogs – despite signing a new five-year deal last year – and said criticism of his relationship with Nasser and Mundine tipped things over the edge.
“I wasn’t happy there for a while, and then when I joined up with Khoder and Anthony, two of the best people I’ve ever met in my life,” Williams said.
“People were jumping up and down bagging me, bagging them, bagging my affiliation with them, saying ‘He’s a Muslim, he’s gone crazy’. And all along my life has finally getting settled off the field.
“I’m not drinking no more, I’m training better, I’m playing good footy.
“But that doesn’t matter. ‘Oh, look who he’s joined up with’, that’s the big thing.
“I can cop it off the journos, because that’s what the journalists are all about, they’re trying to sell papers, and I can understand that.
“But when I have to rock up to training and Folkesy [Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes] comes up to me and he starts having a go at me, ‘You’re not turning Muslim are you? You’re joking aren’t you?’
“And then he starts having a go at Anthony Mundine, saying you’re kidding yourself if you’re taking advice off Anthony Mundine.”
Williams denied his sudden exit from rugby league was a cowardly act.
“I didn’t run away. I stood up for myself, for what I believe in. I had to have balls to do what I done. I’m no coward,” Williams said.
“Let’s not be stupid, let’s not be naive. Do you think that before I left I didn’t think that my name was going to get slandered, that I wasn’t going to get vilified, that my family weren’t going to get harassed, that I wasn’t going to be made out to be some rapist, some killer, some murderer?
“Let’s not be stupid here. It’s not a coward act, it’s a ballsy act.
“Those people that call me a dog – dogs take orders. I don’t take orders.”
