The Man Behind The Desk

by Neil Pond
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To most of America, he’s the guy at the news desk each weeknight on TV, or on location covering big stories as they unfold around the world.

But there’s more to Brian Williams than meets the eye. More than you’d ever know from watching his cool, calm, confident air of informed authority as the anchor of NBC Nightly News. More than you might imagine about the guy beneath the network suit and tie.

Here are five things that might surprise you.

No Country for Old (Fire)Men

Pre-NBC, he was a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey. “Some of the happiest years of my life,” he says. “I go back often. Now, at age 48, the helmet I used looks like one of those old leather antiques that you see at the Museum of Firefighting in New York. Nothing makes me feel older than a visit to my old firehouse. I used to be a back-step guy, riding on the back step of the fire truck with my arm slung through the strap. That’s illegal now—it’s not even done anymore! Everything has changed.” He used his old fireman’s helmet, which today occupies a place of honor in his NBC office, on Saturday Night Live. The SNL staff even let him write some of the dialog for a skit in which he played a Bronx firefighter. “Like, a New York fireman wouldn’t say, ‘Ladder 114.’ They would say, ‘114 Ladder.’ I wanted it to sound real.”

Dog Man Dogma
“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t love a dog,” says Williams, whose household includes “fifth member” Lucy, a rescue dog from a facility in Long Island, N.Y., in addition to his wife, Jane, and two children. “The unconditional love of a dog makes up for all kinds of slights and insults on an average day in America. Lucy is old and deaf and needs help on the stairs, but by God, she’s as much a full-fledged member of our family as any of the people in my house on two legs.”

A Need For Speed
He’s a lugnuts-and-bolts car fanatic who loves going to NASCAR events and watching stock-car races. He drives a hopped-up 2008 Mustang, the latest love in a lifelong passion. “I grew up in upstate New York and we had a fairgrounds that doubled as a dirt track for short-track stock car racing,” he says. “As I kid, I remember my dad taking me to see the Joey Chitwood Auto Thrill Show. I don’t quite get how they dragged Joey around by the seat of his pants behind a car, or how they balanced a car up on two wheels. I have taken my dad’s advice and tried not to replicate either maneuvers in my adult life. I still follow NASCAR, but some of the love for the sport went out when Dale Earnhardt died. That was a tough one. He was the guy. It’s hard to get back on the horse after a tragedy like that.”

Go Ahead, Laugh
“I have a secret comedy life on the side,” says Williams, who’s been known to drop in on New York comedy clubs to take the mic as emcee. Last November, he became the first NBC News anchor in history to host Saturday Night Live. Among his skits: lampooning a debate between Democratic presidential hopefuls, playing a veteran actor slow to understand he was being phased out of a TV series, and making fun of his NBC News job. “I have never slaved over a decision the way I slaved over Lorne Michaels’ invitation to do SNL,” he says. “My biggest fear was that I would damage the credibility that I have worked so hard to build up over 26 years of covering wars and elections and conventions.” In the end, a chance encounter with SNL alum Chevy Chase in a NBC hallway convinced him. “I had never met him, and I walked right up and said, ‘Here’s what I’m dealing with. What’s your opinion?’ He said, ‘Well, I watched Dan Rather for 20 years and I had no idea who he was or got any sense of his personality. You do SNL, and it’ll give me a good idea of who you are.’” Williams’ appearance on the show drew rave reviews.

Only in America
Williams, who didn’t complete college, is often invited to give university commencement addresses. “The message I have delivered in every college commencement I’ve ever done: ‘Today, you all have an advantage over me. You enter life and the professional world with a college degree, and I never had that.’ I was a work-study kid. We didn’t have a lot of money, and I had to make the mostly financial decision to get out of school, get going on a career and get myself out of college-loan debt.

“I’m a college dropout from the New Jersey shore and upstate New York, and Wow!—I’m in the one country where, if you’re willing to work hard and have big, big dreams, outlandish dreams, there’s no limit to what you might be able to do. I’m a walking billboard for America, for the American dream. I have lived it. I am living it.”