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Williams may be NFL drug policy's greatest success
I'm as serious as a DEA raid. Williams is writing his own version of Redemption Song, the reggae tune popularized by his late hemp-smoking idol Bob Marley.
Should he continue on the straight and narrow, Williams can be championed as the biggest success to ever emerge from the NFL's substance-abuse program. No player has missed so much time because of failed drug tests to later re-emerge as a superstar.
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Williams has shined like one during the preseason. He outclassed fellow running back Ronnie Brown to earn the start in next Sunday's regular-season opener against the New York Jets.
"He's back to his old form," Brown said of the former Heisman Trophy winner and 2002 NFL rushing leader.
In other words, Williams is smoking. In a good way.
There's even more reason for the NFL to take pride in Williams. He is taking two classes (math and writing composition) at a South Florida college this fall. The credits will help Williams finish his undergraduate degree at the University of Texas. Williams wants to become an osteopath, a physician who treats patients through holistic methods.
"I have a better idea now of what I want to do outside of football," Williams told FOXSports.com after last Tuesday's Dolphins practice. "I'm more well-rounded. I feel like I have more control over my life and what I spend my time doing."
Having covered Williams as a Dolphins beat writer for five tumultuous seasons, I can tell you these aren't the only positive changes. Williams doesn't show any outer signs of the social-anxiety disorder that once caused him to wear a football helmet when speaking with the media. He is no longer shy, halting or combative when asked a question. Teammates also have more personal interaction with Williams than before.
"When I first got here, he was a guy who would handle his business on the field but really didn't say too much," said Miami safety Yeremiah Bell, a 2003 Dolphins draft pick. "Nowadays, he's very vibrant in the locker room and talking to everybody. He's still got his quiet side but it's not like he used to be. He's more energetic. You can tell he's really happy to be playing now."
This wasn't always the case even when Williams ranked among the NFL's top rushers. His discontent peaked in the 2004 off-season. Williams was upset with the Dolphins for a litany of reasons, particularly his overuse the previous two seasons by then-coach Dave Wannstedt. The problems were compounded by the second and third failed drug tests of his NFL career for marijuana, which Williams has said worked better for his social-anxiety disorder than prescription medication.
Facing a four-game suspension from a team he didn't want to play for, Williams abruptly retired before the start of the 2004 preseason. One of the NFL's most popular players, Williams initially sought anonymity shamed by the public pot revelation while trying to handle a personal meltdown. He lived in a tent in the Australian outback before returning to the U.S., relocating to study yoga in a California city appropriately named Grass Valley.
Williams' NFL career
In retrospect, Williams says this was the best run of his life.
"I was just going to school there and had a regular life," Williams said. "Nobody knew who I was the first couple months. I was just enjoying friends I had in the neighborhood, paying bills, going to the grocery store and doing the simple things that aren't so simple now.
"If I had to pick a moment when I turned a corner, it's when I retired. Pretty much before that, my life was just going in a straight line. I didn't feel like I really had control over what was happening. I was just a football player. That's all I ever knew. When I retired, the whole story had to be re-written. That's when everything became really fun."
Williams, though, also became a punchline for cannabis comedy. Previously stereotyped because of his dreadlocks, Williams drew even more snickers when returning to the Dolphins in 2005 with scruffy hair, an unkempt beard and the propensity to walk barefoot like others in the yoga community.
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| Ricky Williams is the longest-tenured Dolphin and (at least for the time being) a model NFL citizen. Who'd have thunk it? (Marc Serota / Getty Images) |
To skeptics, it was no surprise when Williams failed another drug test (albeit for another undisclosed drug besides marijuana) after a promising 2005 comeback. Having played in Canada while suspended in 2006, Williams then tested positive for marijuana again in April 2007 while on the verge of NFL reinstatement.
Rather than bar him for life, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell allowed Williams to enter a rigid treatment program in Boston to deal with what were deemed serious psychological issues dating to his childhood. So far, the therapy has paid dividends. Williams hasn't failed any of the multiple random drug tests he takes each month since being reinstated last October.
Now clean-shaven with a bald head, Williams is no longer hopping around the South Beach party scene like when he first joined the Dolphins. Williams, 31, says his main hobbies are reading and spending time with his children.
"I'm kind of a family guy," Williams said.
Despite all of the embarrassment he has brought the franchise, Williams has spent more time with the Dolphins than anyone on the current roster. Simply put, Williams had too much talent for any of Miami's three post-Wannstedt head coaches to resist. That includes Tony Sparano, who is the latest coach willing to give Williams another chance.
Williams has impressed so much this preseason that he actually was given a one-year contract extension this weekend that extends his current deal through 2009.
"We had to look at it as a blank piece of paper and see where we were," Sparano said of his off-season evaluation of Williams. "He's made every workout and done extra in some of those situations. He's been to every meeting and off-season OTA (practice). All I have to go on is what I've seen since I've been here. The guy's been really accountable."
But when it comes to Williams, history has shown that accountability ultimately ends. He's already considered a dope for having squandered eight digits in football salary he could have earned by staying sober. Williams is now one missed or failed drug test away from what could be a lifetime NFL suspension.
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Williams said there is nothing comforting he can say to Dolphins fans concerned he will disappoint them again.
"I would tell them if it's meant for me to not let you down, I won't let you down. But if it's meant for me to do something else, then I'm sorry. You're going to be let down," Williams said.
"That's one thing I've tried to impress upon my kids: Life is not always going to be perfect. You're going to be let down by even me sometimes. You just have to try and understand and move on."
Williams said he hopes this stint with the Dolphins will change how he is publicly perceived.
"By coming back and playing and leaving in a way that feels better to people, there are positive associations," Williams said. "I don't feel I'm carrying that baggage for the rest of my life."
Williams already has convinced teammates that he has ditched that baggage — and anything that might be stashed inside it.
"As football players, we've all had experiences that you don't want to repeat or look back on too much," said Brown, who was drafted in 2005 to replace a still-retired Williams. "That's the case with him.
"I think it was helpful. That's what's made him into what he is now. The things you go through make you stronger as an individual."
In that case, Williams should be considered Superman for what has transpired since his South Florida arrival.
"The way I look at it, the people who have misconceptions about me have misconceptions about themselves," Williams said. "People who have had the experience I've had and been stuck, there had to be some sort of crisis to break them out of the situation ... We all go through similar experiences but we all handle them a little differently.
"For me, it's definitely been a ride and it's been wild. But at the same time, it's been fun. I always used to feel like I was trapped as a football player and there were things I would never be able to do in this lifetime. I've had a chance to do 85, 90 percent of those things and I'm still a football player."
A reformed one at that. Or so it seems.
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