Ricky Williams Retires: Complicated Player Ending Long Football Career

Williams commented on the occasion, saying he’s proud to be back and that he challenged current Texas players to earn statues of their own. Earl Campbell and Royal himself were among those on hand.

While we’re here, let’s watch some college football videos from SB Nation’s new YouTube channel together:

↵

He was 230 pounds, ran in the 4.4 range, and seemed immune to the contact he craved. He was a workhorse, as 390-plus attempt seasons in college and the NFL indicate. Before the NFL truly became a passing league, teams dreamed of the chance to build around a feature back like Williams.

NFL teams run from headcases, though. In a judgmental world, that would pass for a fair assessment of Ricky. Some of what seemed weird could be clinically diagnosed -- notably the social anxiety disorder that compelled him to do interviews in his helmet -- and some was just ... weird. Especially for a football player. What other football players, modern gladiators who so often seem invincible, would matter-of-factly tell the world about his fear, flaws and insecurities? Or put on a wedding dress in public? Or spend prime playing -- and earning -- years studying holistic medicine?

Williams wasn’t a superhero, nor did he want us to believe that. According to the machismo and contrived masculinity so prevalent in sports, he was barely a man to some. But that’s what Ricky Williams has proven to be above all else -- a human being. At time, he was a weak one. How else could one describe someone who repeatedly failed drug tests he knew were coming? Moments of weakness, of course, made him no different from anyone else. It was the sincerity with which he dealt with that humanity that made him so memorable, for better or worse.

The better parts were captured in “Run Ricky Run,” the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary that didn’t just show Williams’ attempts to better understand himself. The film’s purpose was that quest. The only condition Ricky gave anyone who appeared on camera was complete honesty. That’s a step so many are afraid to take behind closed doors, with no one to hear them but a trained, privilege-bound professional. Ricky showed it to the world. That wasn’t just admirable. Considering the realm that made Williams famous, it was positively amazing.

The worst was his first departure from the NFL, which cost him the chance at a Hall of Fame career. He got tired of taking drug test after drug test, in spite of that condition being self-inflicted. He called Dave Wannstedt in 2004, looking for assurances the Dolphins cared enough about him to lighten his workload and protect his body. He wanted the reassurance he received in Austin. Before Wannstedt even had to say anything, he quit.

Loving football wasn’t enough to stop him from leaving it. It was courageous to walk away, even if he did so in a cowardly way. Football was never his singular focus. The tunnel vision that most of the greats in any world possess wasn’t in Ricky. He was too into his own head, reefer, and whatever else moved him at a given time. It made him a refreshing departure from what we’re used to from football players. It also stopped him from being the football player he could have been.

It’s unlikely Ricky Williams cares about that. He only planned to play six NFL seasons anyway. We may have seen a yellow blazer in his future, but Ricky never planned to play that much football.

In the end, he played 11 seasons over 13 years. The last six years for the money, even though Williams thought pro sports were corrupt. He did it for the same reasons most of us go to work -- grownups have bills to pay. It’s almost ironic to think of that. Ricky looked and ran like a football player, but seemed nothing like one. He didn’t seem like anyone. But when he returned to the NFL, he did so because he was just like us.

Truth be told, he’s only like Ricky. It’s fitting that his legacy will be less about football than himself. The man he was, the one he wasn’t, and the one he’s still becoming.

Williams was quoted by the Ravens official site in his retirement announcement:

As we noted, Williams was a complicated player. He was great on the field rushing for over 10,000 yards in his career but there were so many distractions off the field that kept him from playing. He missed multiple seasons due to failed drug tests (marijuana) and has already retired once.

He became the NCAA’s I-A all-time rushing yardage leader in 1998, when he virtually swept college football’s major awards, including the Heisman Trophy. Though that record’s since been broken, he still owns at least a part of 20 NCAA records. He ran for 6,592 yards and scored 90 touchdowns from scrimmage. Texas fans remember him as a legend, but a complicated one:

Williams never really stopped making choices all his own, something to which NFL fans who’ve been puzzled by his career over the years can attest.

This news would mark the end of a career that was among the more intriguing in NFL history. His career was punctuated by odd photo opportunities, some quality on-field performances, a well-known affinity for marijuana, an early retirement and an impressive comeback. Williams compiled more than 10,000 rushing yards and scored more than 100 touchdowns in a career that spanned 12 seasons.

Williams tested positive for marijuana after the 2005 season and opted to retire, rather than serve his suspension. But he came back in 2007 and posted his fifth career 1,000-yard season in 2009, scoring 15 touchdowns to boot.