Max Causey, Milton Williams earn spots on football’s biggest stage
With 10 minutes left in Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, there was a funny, Ruston-flavored moment the cameras didn’t catch between two Louisiana Tech football lettermen, each in a key role for his respective “team.”
Milton “Big Milt” Williams, the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2020 and then in his fourth year as a defensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles, strip-sacked Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes inside the Chief’s 20, “flew” toward the end zone with arms outstretched, and dunked the recovered fumble over the goalpost crossbar.
That extracurricular celebration added an exclamation point to the Eagles’ 37-6 lead. It was also an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, automatic.
Down judge Max Causey, former Tech quarterback and letterman from 1999-2003, threw the flag, then found Williams on the sideline.
“You know who I am?” Causey asked.
“Sure!” said Williams, still celebrating with his teammates. “Louisiana Tech!”
Most of the veteran players will always know who’s calling their games.
“You know I had to throw the flag,” said Causey, smiling.
And Williams flashed that big smile fans at Tech were used to seeing in Joe Aillet Stadium and said he did not care about the flag, understood, and no problem, not with his team leading by four touchdowns and change in a game the Eagles would win, 40-22.
That Super Sunday provided well-deserved exclamation points for both Bulldogs.
As a second-year NFL player in 2022, Williams recorded one tackle as the Eagles lost 38-35 to Kansas City in Super Bowl LVII in Arizona. This time around in the blowout of Kansas City in New Orleans, the Crowley, Texas native had two sacks, two tackles for loss, a quarterback hit, a forced fumble and recovery, and four tackles. He’s the first interior lineman ever with two sacks and a forced fumble in a Super Bowl.
Quite an impression.
During the offseason, Williams signed a four-year, $104 million contract with the New England Patriots to make him the highest-paid player in Patriots history — more than Tom Brady’s previous salary, according to CBS News — and the third- highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL on an annual basis.
Causey, the down judge for Super Bowl LIX’s all-star officiating crew, shared in making Super Bowl history as he and umpire Mike Morton, a former NFL player, each called their first Super Bowl in only their third year as officials. Until this year, no official with less than five years of NFL experience had called a Super Bowl.
In his first experience on an officiating crew, Causey worked the clock at a Cedar Creek playoff game in 2006. He worked seven years as a high school official, began to work a full Conference USA schedule in 2014, and moved to the PAC-12 in 2020. The big leagues called in 2022.
Academic All-WAC three times and a magna cum laude student who graduated in less than four years and earned his MBA during his senior season, Causey was instrumental in Tech’s 2001 WAC Championship run as he led the Bulldogs to the game-winning drive in a 45-42 road win at Nevada.
He was fast-tracked to the NFL because he was exactly what they were looking for: smart, understood football, loved football, in shape, young, athletic background.
The business world would call it a “home run hire.”
Few have stronger family ties to Louisiana Tech than Causey. Numerous relatives played for the Dogs, including his All-America dad John (1971-73), his cousin Mike (1983-85), and uncles Walter (1966-68) and Tom (1958-60). He is also the grandson of Bulldog coaching legend and hall of famer Maxie Lambright, and his grandmother, Gerry Lambright, taught math for years at the school.
Not that their resumes need it, but here are a couple of trivia bits to spice up things up for Milton and Max.
Williams is the only former all-conference Bulldog from Crowley to dunk a football over a crossbar during a Super Bowl that his team won by three-plus touchdowns, and;
Causey is the only former Tech quarterback to serve as a sideline reporter for the Louisiana Tech Sports Network and officiate a Super Bowl and officiate it from the same field where he and his West Monroe High teammates won three state championships.
Can’t bark much louder than they have.
