AIKEN, S.C. — Troy Williamson’s NFL tenure didn’t go too well. His fantasy football career has been much better.

Williamson’s Spread Eagles last season won a second fantasy title in three years. The victory netted him $330 in the 12-team league, and whenever he likes he can wear the championship belt he received.

“I’m starting a little bit of a dynasty,” he said.

Williamson gave some credit to Vikings running backs Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon for his latest title. He picked them up after Minnesota star running back Adrian Peterson was lost for the season because of a child-abuse incident.

Williamson was a speedy wide receiver out of South Carolina taken with the No. 7 pick in the 2005 NFL draft. He was expected to replace star Randy Moss, who was traded to Oakland.

But Williamson never panned out as a Viking. He had three uninspiring seasons, his final one in 2007 featuring a fallout with then-coach Brad Childress. That was the year Williamson played alongside Peterson, then a rookie.

Williamson was traded to Jacksonville, where he played in 2008 and 2009. But he was released before the 2010 season, and that was it for his NFL career.

“It seems like it was just yesterday,” Williamson, 32, said on a recent rainy afternoon in Aiken while looking back at the 2005 draft. “Ten years flew by. … A lot of things factored into me obviously not reaching my potential that I wanted. It is what it is, but I’m enjoying life with the things that I’m doing now.”

Since his retirement, Williamson returned to his South Carolina hometown, although he actually lives in Evans, Ga., 30 miles west. But Aiken is where he owns and operates a Which Wich? restaurant franchise and where he runs the foundation Fighting Against the O.D.D.S. (Opening Doors Doing Service).

With his foundation, Williamson works with kids. Some of whom grew up poor, much like Williamson, who was raised by his mother and grandmother, had 10 brothers and sisters and got into plenty of trouble as a youth.

“I worried about him, what he was going to do when he left the pros,” said Lou Holtz, who coached Williamson at South Carolina from 2002-04. “I’m so happy he has chosen to go back to his hometown and make a difference.”

Meanwhile, the Vikings have spent the past decade continuing to look for a Moss replacement as a deep threat after he had six 1,000-yard receiving seasons in his first seven years. Since Moss left, they’ve had just one receiver top 1,000 yards.

Perhaps speedy Mike Wallace, acquired last month from Miami, will fill Moss’ shoes to some extent. Or maybe the Vikings will take a receiver when the three-day draft begins Thursday with the No. 11 pick from an intriguing group that includes Amari Cooper, Kevin White and DeVante Parker.

“I don’t think you’re ever going to replace Randy Moss,” said former Vikings quarterback Brad Johnson, who threw to Moss when he was a rookie in 1998 and later to Williamson in 2005 and 2006. “He was probably the best deep-ball guy to play the game. Troy was a very explosive player and a hard worker in practice, but it was kind of hard to replace Moss. No doubt about it, that put pressure on Troy.”

Williamson said the pressure to replace Moss wasn’t what specifically got to him. But he doesn’t deny he was overwhelmed coming in as a high draft pick and was expected to perform at a top level immediately.

“I would look at it as me not preparing myself and obviously not being mentally ready to be in that position, and that played a big factor in it,” he said. “Obviously, dealing with the media, reading some of the stuff the media was saying, I wasn’t mentally ready for that.”

As a rookie, Williamson caught just 24 passes for 372 yards. He wasn’t much better in his second season (37 catches for 455 yards), and his third year (18 for 240) was a disaster.

Williamson was bothered by dropped passes. The pressure on him continued to mount.

“It was all mental for me, and I just never got over that hump,” Williamson said. “I never read the papers in college, and that changed when I got to Minnesota. … I would call it B.S., but I should have just left it alone. … Being a high draft pick, you don’t want the snowball to get started.”

It did. Williamson soon was being labeled a bust.

“He was the type of young man you had to give strong support to, so I could see where he would have some difficulty in the pros, where everybody is booing and yelling,” Holtz said. “It was just a different atmosphere there. You’ve got to have great self confidence there and a great belief. But it wasn’t a lack of talent (why Williamson struggled).”

Williamson, who left South Carolina with a year of eligibility left, caught 43 passes for 835 yards as a junior. He ran the 40-yard dash at the combine in 4.32 seconds.

That’s why Williamson in 2005 was drafted ahead of such future stars as DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, Aaron Rodgers and Frank Gore. Wide receivers he was taken ahead of included Roddy White and Vincent Jackson, who both are still active and have made four and three Pro Bowls, respectively.

“When you’re that high a pick, it’s hard to live up to expectations,” Johnson said. “It’s hard for anybody, and he came out a year early. He could make plays, but the biggest thing is you want to see is that over a consistent period of time. For any player, the biggest deal is having confidence.”

With each game, Williamson seemed to have less of it. Then came the first week of November in 2007.

Williamson’s grandmother, Celestine Williamson, had died in Aiken. Williamson went home for her funeral and ended up missing a 35-17 home win over San Diego, the game in which Peterson set the NFL record with 296 yards rushing.

When Williamson returned the next week, he learned Childress had fined him a game check, about $25,000. The move brought negative publicity to the Vikings and Childress, after several veteran players talked to him, eventually bowed to pressure and rescinded the fine.

However, the damage had been done. Williamson, who donated the week’s salary to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, said his relationship with Childress never again was the same.

“My grandma passed, and she was one of the ones who raised me,” Williamson said. “(Childress) was like, ‘Just go down there and come back.’ I felt I needed to be down there with my family for as long as it took. … And a few months before that, my brother (Carlton) had gotten in a bad car accident, and (Childress) wouldn’t let me go home for that.

“He was in a coma for about three months, and (then) wasn’t able to walk. So that was the first time I had seen him since the accident when I went down to my grandma’s funeral. … I still have the same ill against coach Childress that I had back then. I take my family serious, and he didn’t understand that.”

Carlton Williamson, 36, has been paralyzed since the crash. His accident came 12 years after another Williamson brother, Roy, who was two years older, was killed after he stole a car and wrecked it.

Williamson caught just nine passes in Minnesota’s final eight games that season before being traded to the Jaguars. Before the Vikings played at Jacksonville in 2008, Williamson said he wanted to fight Childress at midfield.

“That’s how I felt at the time,” Williamson said. “I’m past that point (of wanting to fight Childress) but as far as me having respect for him, that’s out the window.”

Childress is now a Kansas City assistant, but the Chiefs did not make him available for comment.

Former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe was a teammate during Williamson’s Vikings tenure. He recalls players making light of Williamson challenging Childress to a fight.

“I made a poster in the locker room where it was a heavyweight bout with like Mike Tyson and George Foreman and I photoshopped Childress’ head on one and Troy’s head on one,” Kluwe said. “We passed it around the locker room and we called it, ‘The fight of the century.’ “

Kluwe, though, said it was no laughing matter the previous year when the incident happened between Williamson and Childress.

“We talked about it in the locker room and it was kind of, ‘Can you believe Childress is doing that?’ ” Kluwe said. “Why would you fine a guy for being at his grandmother’s funeral, especially since Troy was so close to his grandma? Football is just a game and that’s a family member who died.”

The Vikings got merely a sixth-round pick for Williamson. But he didn’t do much for the Jaguars, catching eight passes in 10 games during two injury-riddled seasons.

Williamson, who originally signed a five-year deal with Minnesota worth about $20 million, re-signed with Jacksonville for 2010. But Williamson, who had suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the second game of 2009, never fully healed and was let go just before the start of the season. He then retired.

“When I made a decision to walk away, one thing that helped me make the transition was having (his wife Charity) support me,” Williamson said. “I give her all the credit.”

Williamson has known Charity Williamson, from nearby North Augusta, S.C., for 18 years. She provided encouragement for Williamson to return to their home area and to open a restaurant. Williamson had started his foundation while with the Vikings.

“I’ve always reminded him to stay grounded and stay true to yourself and not let your fame and fortune change who are,” said Charity Williamson, who has sons Royal, 7, Royce 5, and Rayland, 1, with her husband. “Playing professionally was a great opportunity, but that’s not all he had to offer. He had always wanted to open a restaurant, so being able to open Which Wich? was a blessing.”

Williamson said the sandwich shop is doing well. He soon plans to open another in the area.

Williamson also is a motivational speaker, talking at local churches, schools and businesses. But much of his satisfaction comes from motivating youngsters through his foundation.

“We deal with middle-school kids,” Williamson said. “Not necessary kids that are bad, but that have a hard time adjusting to life. We bring all the kids together and take them to baseball and football games and teach them how to study and get along with each other. …. I know how it was when I was growing up and I know some of the kids need the same help I got.”

It was well chronicled during Williamson’s college and NFL days the problems he had growing up. Mary Endres Thomas, who has known Williamson since he was 3 and taught him at Silver Bluff High School, said he “ran the streets,” bullied teachers and other kids and was generally “bad news.”

Williamson’s life began to turn around when he was 12 after his brother Roy died. Williamson’s godfather, Doug Bates, a local church worker, was able to help convince him to change his ways.

After turning pro, Williamson bought houses in Aiken for both his mother, Shirley Williamson, and Bates. Bates still works with local youth, and Williamson has purchased four-wheelers and jet skis that Bates allows kids to use if they meet certain expectations.

Thomas wrote a book published last year titled “Kids These Days.” It contains inspirational stories, including a chapter on how Williamson turned his life around.

“I’m so proud of him,” Thomas said. “So many fellows, they start making the money and the popularity and then they forget where they came from. But Troy never forgot about home. Troy never forgot about what was important. Troy realized where his downfall was, where he was making mistakes, and he wanted to come back home and help other young kids from doing the same things he did.”

Williamson wants to expand on the advice he gives. He spoke to Dallas defensive end DaMarcus Lawrence, a Silver Bluff graduate and a second-round pick last year, about what to expect in the NFL and believes some of the difficulties he experienced could lead him to help other rookies make the adjustment.

In the meantime, Williamson’s football duties mostly will be stocking the roster of the Spread Eagles. It remains to be seen if Williamson next season might pick up Wallace or perhaps a wide receiver the Vikings take in the draft who could be dubbed the next Randy Moss.

Follow Chris Tomasson at twitter.com/christomasson