[align=center][/align]Green Bay - He once stocked shelves at the supermarket.

And shoveled coal and cleaned the machines at the plant.

He did welding, cleaned tractors and planted in the spring on his uncle's farm.

He even worked for a construction company that built a building on LSU's campus.

Tramon Williams did all of this before he ever played a down of college football. And because of this, he almost never played cornerback for the Green Bay Packers.

Williams was a first-team all-district player at Assumption High in Napoleonville, La., when he graduated and decided to quit playing to just concentrate on his college education, namely a degree in electrical engineering. So he picked Louisiana Tech for its reputable program and never gave football another thought. His parents, who trusted his judgment, never second-guessed his decision.

With a Pell grant, student loans and his obvious strong work ethic, Williams went to Tech with just scholastic ambitions.

But that first semester at Louisiana Tech, he happened to attend a football game against Boise State.

"I went out there and just watched the DBs and I was like&ensp.&ensp.&ensp. " Williams paused, "I could go out there, you know what I'm saying?"

Williams tried out for the team the next spring and said he was the only walk-on invited to Louisiana Tech's camp.

"I was walking through the weight room and they were testing vertical jump," said former Tech coach Jack Bicknell Jr., who is now an assistant with Boston College. "Usually with walk-ons, it's kind of like tell me if there's anybody good, but I saw him jump and I just stopped dead in my tracks. I said, 'Let me see that one more time.'

"He did it again and I just grabbed him and said, 'now what exactly is your name, son?' I was like holy smokes, you knew he was going to be a player. That's like Christmas, getting the best present of your life. I didn't even know anything about him and here we've got this stud corner right in our back yard."

Williams worked his way up to a role player and then a starter by his junior year and Louisiana Tech got exposure playing teams such as Miami and Auburn. Soon there was a buzz about his pro playing future.

Hearing projections of anywhere from third to fourth round in the draft, even though he was not invited to the combine, Williams kept at his studies. Engineering was out because of all the math, but Williams earned two degrees, in computer information systems and sociology.

He did not get drafted but this time he did not give up football. He knew he would get picked up as a free agent.

He spent the summer of 2006 with Houston but got cut. He was brought on to the Packers' practice squad in late November where he spent the rest of season. Even then he caught the eye of defensive backs coach Lionel Washington.

"You could tell he had some ability," Washington said. "Athletic-wise, he's just a freak of nature. He's a high-flyer; he can really get up and run at you. He can go up and attack the football, has excellent ball skills. An inner toughness you don't really see from a player his size, he's not a real big guy, I think he's about 185, 190 pounds and compared to our other corners, he's one of our smaller corners. Still a good sized corner but he's got a toughness that's unbelievable."

In 2007 Williams won a roster spot with the Packers and played in spots and on special teams.

By the off-season heading into this year, he was regularly practicing at the nickel cornerback slot.

That's where Williams started 2008 but when 11-year veteran Al Harris went out with an injured spleen in the Dallas game, Williams filled in at the right corner spot for four games. And he did very well.

Since the Tennessee game, Williams slid back to the nickel corner and at first it was an adjustment. For a guy used to working, he saw his snaps cut in half from 70 to maybe 35.

"I still played all the third downs, but it didn't feel like it, I didn't feel quite like I played a lot of snaps," Williams said. "You want to be in the game and not in and out of the game, so that's where you really have to focus - the mental aspect of the game."

But he maintained a high level of performance against Tennessee and Minnesota where he had another interception. Williams has four interceptions, tied with a bunch of players for third most in the NFL behind Charles Woodson and Nick Collins, who are leading the league with five interceptions apiece.

Then most recently against the Bears, as the Packers put Woodson on Chicago's hybrid tight end Greg Olsen, Williams came in on the nickel and played the whole game. Of the 54 defensive plays, Green Bay played 49 of them in the nickel formation with Williams.

He batted down two passes - including a third down attempt to Devin Hester over the middle that Williams just arm-wrestled away from Hester. Now it doesn't matter whether he's a starter or the nickel, Williams is having an exceptional season.

"I can't say enough about the path that he's taken, how hard he's worked," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "He's shown his ability to play and be a starting corner in this league. He's been productive with every opportunity that he's been given, and the beautiful thing about Tramon is his best football is ahead of him. He's still a young player. He continues to improve."

Harris waited for five years as the nickel corner in Philadelphia before he got his shot as a starting cornerback in Green Bay. Williams also seems content to wait.

"Whenever the time comes&ensp.&ensp.&ensp.&enspUntil then I'll do what I'm supposed to do," Williams said. "I know my role on this team. I know what they expect out of me. Even though it's coming from the nickel, they still expect a lot out of me."

After all, it beats a real job.

"This ain't nothing," he added. "This is fun for me."