SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Every Monday when he could, Terrell Williams would show up for New England's defensive meetings and praise the unit for an interception, sack or pass breakup during the previous game, and his players found joy in seeing the strength of their coach as he fought cancer.
“I feel like he never lost it,” linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson said. “He still had the charismatic energy and kept a smile on his face, he kept being positive. You wouldn't be able to know anything was going on with him. I appreciated everything that he showed throughout the process."
The defensive coordinator is now back with the Patriots for the Super Bowl on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks after a nearly five-month battle with prostate cancer.
Williams attended meetings at the Patriots’ facility during his treatment, but he hasn’t traveled with the team all season and hasn’t been on the sideline since Week 1. Inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr filled in as New England’s defensive play-caller.
Williams was declared cancer-free during the playoffs and cleared to join the team at the Super Bowl.
He was diagnosed because he thought he had a stomach illness following a Week 1 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. When Williams told Mike Vrabel after the game he wasn’t feeling well, the head coach urged him to get checked out by the medical staff and Williams was immediately sent to urgent care.
“As they were doing tests, that’s when they found out about the cancer, so thank God that I had the stomach flu because if I didn’t it just would have been business as usual,” Williams said Monday at media night for the Super Bowl.
Chaisson said Williams provided everybody with an emotional lift with his presence and positive spirt despite the obstacles he faced.
“It's huge, for sure," Chaisson said of Williams' return. “Coach has been with us throughout all year, though. We never forgot about him. Everybody continued to call and check on him throughout his recovery but to see him back around and to see him full-time smiling and his very positive energy, it'll uplift every ounce of joy that we have in our lives.”
Williams focused on his mental approach and found it important to share his tough days with the players “because keeping that stuff in, that's not the way to go.”
“I'm from South-Central Los Angeles, and we were taught where I grew up to keep things inside,” he said. "And now going through what I went through over the last year, I'm not keeping it inside, I'm sharing with people. The struggles, not just the nausea and the things you're going through, but also the mental part because there's a mental component that's probably the biggest going through a struggle like that.”
Safety Jaylinn Hawkins praised Williams' heart, even when he was dealing with his illness.
“He's been a hell of a coach for us since he got here,” Hawkins said. "All that he was going through he still managed to show up for us and that's special and that means a lot. Showing up for people is something I take serious. To see him showing up for our team the way he did regardless of what was going on was just amazing to me, and that just shows how much he loves and cares about us.”
Now that he is medically cleared, Williams is busy preparing his team for a tough Seahawks offense. But he's also allowing himself to reflect a bit on his remarkable comeback journey.
“Honestly, my thoughts are about the game and not really about me or the Super Bowl or anything,” he said. “This could be a preseason game and I'd be happy to be here with these guys after kind of what I've been through, what we've been through. It's been joyous for me just to watch them develop and watch them buy into the message that Vrabes is preaching.”
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New England Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams speaks to the media during Opening Night on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of the Super Bowl 60 football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. (Jeff Lewis/AP Content Services for the NFL)
Iran fired missiles at Israel and some Gulf nations while explosions could be heard around Tehran and the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday, as the United States prepared to further reinforce its already significant military forces in the Middle East.
As the war that began Feb. 28 was to enter its sixth week, Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait warned about incoming missile fire, although it was unclear if anything was struck. Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan but it wasn’t immediately clear what was hit.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf region energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing.
Oil prices surged while Asian financial markets rose moderately during cautious trading. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.
U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks.
The largest American aircraft carrier in service sailed out of Split, in Croatia and “remains poised for full mission tasking in support of national objectives in any area of operation,” the Navy’s 6th Fleet announced.
It was unclear where it was going. The USS Abraham Lincoln remains in the Arabian Sea and the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier departed Norfolk on Wednesday to head to the Mideast.
Here is the latest:
Oil prices continued to surge on worries of a prolonged Iran war but the Asian markets that were open Friday rose moderately in cautious trading, while others were closed for the Good Friday holidays.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.
The U.S. only relies on the Persian Gulf for a fraction of the oil it imports, but oil is a commodity and prices are set in a global market.
The situation is very different in Asia. Japan, for example, relies on access to the Strait of Hormuz for much of the nation’s oil import needs and would need to rely on alternative routes. But some analysts say Japan and oher nations are counting on an agreement with Iran to allow transports.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.9% in Friday morning trading to 52,938.62. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.1% to 5,344.41. The Shanghai Composite sank 0.5% to 3,899.57. Trading was closed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India.
Wall Street, where trading is closed Friday, finished its first winning week since the start of the Iran war, although trading started out with a decline driven by a surge in oil prices.
Bangladesh is curtailing office hours and enforcing early closure of malls and shops beginning Friday to handle its energy crisis related to the war.
The country’s cabinet ordered 30% spending cuts for fuel and power at government offices, suspended some staff training and stopped purchases of new vehicles, ships and aircraft. Decorative lighting will not be allowed for celebrations.
Bangladesh, a nation of more than 170 million people, is seeking alternative fuel sources and $2.5 billion in external financing for imports, which account for 95% of its fuel.
Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Friday urged motorists getting away for a long weekend during the Easter holiday to fill up in cities because most of the nation’s fuel shortages are in rural areas.
Among 2,400 gas stations in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, 182 had run out of diesel by Friday.
In Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, 76 gas stations were out of diesel. In the remaining states ranked by the most populous first, Queensland had 75 stations without diesel, Western Australia had 37, South Australia had 28 and in Tasmania there were seven.
“For those Australians planning a road trip this weekend, given our shortages are predominantly in rural and regional Australia, it makes sense to fill up in the city to help the country if you can,” Bowen said in Sydney.
The government, which blamed regional shortages on panic buying and distribution problems, is concentrating on delivering fuel to farmers for planting crops.
Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A man with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon sits on a bed at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A boy who fled with his family following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sits inside the van they are using as shelter in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
President Donald Trump arrives from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
