Kyle Williams was the goat the last time the San Francisco 49ers were on the field.

He botched two punt returns that cost his team a trip to the Super Bowl, plays so stunning that there was outrageous public reaction following the game. Williams, the son of Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams, essentially went into hiding. He didn’t show up anywhere.

But he did go to work. According to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee, Williams took the week following the loss off and then he started training and working out for this season. He hasn’t stopped yet.

“Ever since a week after that last game, I've been going,” Williams said. “There was no break, and I've been going full throttle since then.”

He can’t forget the miscues.

“It's not like you want to forget about something like that," he said. "You want to build off of that, learn from it, take it as a mistake and build off it, you know? It was a tough time, obviously, for me and for the whole team.”

Williams said he’s received terrific support from teammates and former players who reached out to him. Now, he faces the challenge of making a roster that has been upgraded at wide receiver since he was last on the field. Hopefully for Williams, that offseason work pays off.

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Brad Biggs covers the Bears for the Chicago Tribune