Berry, judging from experience, says he thinks Williams is making the right choice.

“Follow your heart,” Berry says. “Just because people say ‘You’re a Harvard grad, you should be doing this, you should be doing that,’ you’ve got to follow what your passion is, got to follow what you love. At the end of the day, it’s James’ life; if he wants to go play football, go play football.”

Both players agree that law school will always be there if things don’t work out for Williams, but if they do, the result could be lucrative. While first-year attorneys earn an average of $125,000, an NFL fifth-round draft pick’s first-year salary averages $500,000.

Though Berry’s Harvard degree certainly helped him get a job on Wall Street, the former gridiron standout knows that playing in the Ivy League made it tougher to make it in the NFL.

“Undoubtedly, it’s a little more difficult to make it as an athlete, just because you’re not playing at the pinnacle of competition,” Berry says. “You’re not playing LSU or Tennessee on a weekly basis.”

But Williams knows that other options will be there, like they were for his teammate, if things don’t work out on the field.

“I can always go back to law school, but this opportunity will not present itself again,” says Williams, who will take the LSATs after the season ends. “This is my opportunity if I want to play in the NFL.”

Football captain Carl Ehrlich adds that his two teammates’ decisions might have been easier than some have imagined.

“I think what’s most interesting about both of them...they don’t really consider what they are doing as giving something up,” Ehrlich writes in an e-mail. “They both have a long relationship with football and a deep respect for the game that has attracted them to this field.”

While whether Williams’ risk will pay off is still up in the air, Berry says he has no regrets.

“Confucius said, ‘If you choose a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life,’” he says. “I really feel that’s the case here.”