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Tennessee fans booed him off their own field. October 2023. He fumbled the first snap he took, and when the Titans sent him back out near the end of the half, his own crowd let him have it. His teammates were the ones who said something about it. Will Levis, DeAndre Hopkins and Derrick Henry all went at the fans for it. "For the Titans fans, us in the locker room, we don't appreciate the boos for Malik." This is Malik Willis, out of College Park, Georgia. He went to Westlake High in Atlanta, then moved to Roswell for his senior year. His uncle, James Anderson, played linebacker in the league for a decade. Auburn could not find a spot for him. Fifteen games in two years, almost all of it in relief. So he went to Liberty, sat out a year to do it, and came back and won the Dudley Award and then the Bobby Bowden Award. The draft still would not take him early. He slid out of the first round and out of the second, and Tennessee had to trade up with the Raiders just to get him at 86. Somewhere in there, walking from the combine to a Nike suite in downtown Indianapolis, he passed a pregnant woman sitting outside with her son. He gave her the suitcase he was carrying and a couple of shirts out of it. He had no idea anybody was filming. The video went past three million views in a day. "I just felt like I had to do that." Two years later the Green Bay Packers traded a seventh-round pick for him. That was the price the whole league had settled on. He held Jordan Love's seat and won the games he was handed. Beat the Colts 16 to 10. Beat the Ravens in Week 17 last season for 288 yards and two scores on the ground. In March the Miami Dolphins gave him $67.5 million. Then Miami started 0-5 and he wore every bit of it. Not nearly good enough. Getting harder to defend him. Four days before this game somebody asked him how he was holding up. "I've played enough ball and had enough ups and downs where it doesn't really bother me." "Who are you when the adversity hits? That's what I try to focus on." Today at the New York Jets he went 14 of 21 for 208 yards and two touchdowns, both of them to Caleb Douglas, a rookie playing his first game back from an ankle injury. The second one went 63 yards. Willis ran for 37 more and scored on a two-yard scramble before the half. Then he picked up the fourth-and-1 with two minutes left that ended it. 28 to 25. First win of the season, and the first of Jeff Hafley's head coaching career. Be straight about the opponent. The Jets are 2-5 and have not beaten anybody in their own division under Aaron Glenn. Miami is 1-5 and one afternoon does not undo the other five. But the guy who got booed off a field in Tennessee just won one with his legs on fourth down. Then he said this.