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It seems Ricky likes weed over football
Scott Kaplan / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 4 hours ago

Just when you thought you've seen it all, an athlete finds a way to shock you yet again.

Here's the latest: It seems Ricky Williams prefers weed to football.
That's it, let's bottom line it right now. Ricky would rather live his way than the league's way, so rather than conform to meet the requirements of the league, Ricky quits playing.

Ricky runs away ...

A selfish Rick
Ricky Williams is an egocentric fool that everyone is better off without.


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• Dolphins left in a lurch
• Williams: 'I'm finally free'
• Reactions to Ricky's retirement
• What are the Fantasy implications?


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• Dolphins shocked by retirement




In other words, if the NFL did not drug test for pot, and if it didn't care that its players were smoking it, Ricky would likely have continued playing for the Dolphins.

That's my interpretation of the situation. Very simply, Ricky likes his weed more than he likes his football. No judgments of right or wrong here, just the perception that the high of scoring a touchdown isn't as exciting as the high of scoring a bag of weed.

Ricky's already been busted by the league, he's got the mandatory testing, he's got the meeting with a counselor, he's got to have Big Brother in his business. Ricky doesn't like that. I don't blame Ricky for not wanting to be subjected to the NFL's drug counseling program, and I can't fault him for not wanting to be publicly humiliated.

What you can fault him for is his selfishness.

In Ricky's mind, smoking pot is not a big deal, it's something he likes and wants to do. It has yet to help or hurt his on-field performance, so why should the league care what he puts in his body as long as it's not performance enhancing? This, I imagine, was Ricky's logic.

What's so fascinating about the story is, we have never had an athlete retire in his prime, who walking out the door tells the world he has regularly taken a masking agent to hide his pot-smoking from the NFL.

You can criticize Ricky for his timing, for screwing over his teammates, for walking away from the fame and fortune of the NFL, all legitimate. But what is really deserving of true criticism, is the idea that weed is more important than career.

I know plenty of people that operate on a daily basis with marijuana as a regular part of their lives, professional people. Yet I don't know anybody willing to throw away their careers for weed.

Purely selfish, no other way to put it. In team sports, with other people's livelihoods on the line, and somewhat dependent on you, when you turn your back, because you prefer weed to football, it's a selfish move, end of story.

I refuse to buy the "he doesn't need football" routine, he's got other things he wants to do like taking pictures and traveling. Look, you want to sell me on the fact that Ricky was bored playing football, he didn't need the fame and fortune, fine ... I can buy that.

There are plenty of players who are bored, or not intellectually challenged by sports. There are plenty of guys playing for the money and fame, not for the true passion of winning. But Ricky Williams leaves the NFL at the peak of his career to, for all intents and purposes, be free from drug testing. Now that's something we've never seen before.

The whole story is just an embarrassment all the way around. Don't you think Dave Wannstedt wanted to call Ricky a sellout, but he had to be careful, just in case someone in the Dolphins organization can grovel and beg enough to bring him out of retirement?

Aren't you mortified for Dan LeBatard, the Miami Herald columnist who was put in a position of not reporting Ricky's thoughts, but actually defending them?

Then there's the NFL. What happens if Ricky wants back in? Do you look the other way and just welcome him back? This is a guy who has publicly admitted doing whatever necessary to avoid a positive drug test.

For most fans, the idea of turning your back on the money and the thrill of the NFL life is unimaginable. What's more, turning your back on the money and thrill of NFL life for weed is more unimaginable.

It's just hard to believe that a guy who a few weeks ago was standing up at a team meeting imploring his mates to be as prepared as possible for camp, would walk away given the timing and the reasoning.

This isn't comparable to Robert Smith, Barry Sanders or Jim Brown. Smith left early because the man wanted more out of his life than football could give him. Sanders was just done. Brown didn't want to be told what to do. Are there elements of all three in Ricky? Sure. But none of the three retired because they would rather not be drug-tested.

So while LeBatard makes excuses for Ricky, I will go on believing that weed was ultimately more important to Ricky than football. I don't fault him for his personal preferences, if that's what he likes, then fine. However, what sickens me is how he has hung his teammates and coaches out to dry. You want to retire, at least have the professional courtesy to alert your teammates and organization with a reasonable amount of time to find a replacement.

So off Ricky goes, from Hawaii to Asia in search of something. No one knows what that is except Ricky, but he's out there looking for it. Football can't give it to him, at least not right now, not while training camp and drug tests are looming.

Scott Kaplan is co-host of the "Scott and B.R. Show" on the Mighty 1090 in San Diego.


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Williams went to UT.
UT is in Austin.
Willie is in Austin.
Coincidence?

jtstang wrote:Coincidence?

I think not

This is a pretty sad story really. Here is a guy who had all the talent in the world as a running back, and by all accounts was a great person (he wore Doak's number out of respect for Doak), and yet can't stay away from the evil weed and has lost out on a great potential football career. If you don't think pot is addictive, just look at this lost career.

While never having been a pot smoker myself (ok, I did try that one time in Vail back in '85), weed is no more addictive than alcohol or tobacco and does not deserve the stigma we as a society give it.

I kind of admire Williams' decision. As a social conservative, I'm not entirely sure why. But I do.

EastStang wrote:This is a pretty sad story really. Here is a guy who had all the talent in the world as a running back, and by all accounts was a great person (he wore Doak's number out of respect for Doak), and yet can't stay away from the evil weed and has lost out on a great potential football career. If you don't think pot is addictive, just look at this lost career.

I don't see this as sad in the least bit. He's a grown man who made a lifestyle choice which precludes him from playing football. It was his decision and by all accounts is happy with it. And it doesn't sound so much that he "can't stay away" from pot as much as he just doesn't want to. Bully for him, I'm sure he's got enough in the bank to buy a plantation in South America if he wants.

Actually, I believe that smoking pot was one of the reasons he gave for quitting the NFL - he wanted to give more time to it.

I think Jim Rome had the best take on it - Only a loser decides at 27 that they are going to quit their job and smoke pot and go hike mountains the rest of their lives. It is one thing for a kid to make a statement like that, but at 27...

And on top of that, right before training camp, AFTER all the good RBs have saigned contracts. That is incredibly selfish.

there's always the possibility this guy figures he's already made more money than most of us will in our lifetimes and that he just wants to walk away from football while he can still walk with a normal gait. I agree with those who say the timing was horrible, but he isn't the 1st NFL player who realized he had lost his desire as training camp approached.