Ricky Williams set to retire

[Champ]

Ricky Williams informed BAL officials he's retiring. Ends a distinguished if unconventional career. Team would have welcomed him back

https://twitter.com/#!/JasonLaCanfora/status/166946572163219456

 

[Ravin]

Just watched the Run Ricky Run 30 for 30 about a week ago. So much wasted talent. I get the entire trying to find himself crap, and I'm not saying he should have stayed for the money, but with all the money he would have got, he could easily spend the next 40 years of his life doing this spirit stuff.

Though I guess you do have to give him some credit as being man enough to walk away from football to do that. Most wouldn't be able to.

 

[FedEx227]

He was just a guy who never really liked the game, just played because he was really, really good at it. I respect it though. He saw a bigger picture in his life and didn't want to be defined solely by being good at football.

 

[ralaw]

I've always been a fan of Ricky Williams. I can respect a dude that is true to himself and really seems to have an understanding of who they are and the bigger picture. Baltimore will miss him, because he provided a good change of pace for the offense.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Maybe a Hall of Famer if he doesn't take a sabbatical from the league. 10,000 yard rusher, and left in the prime of his career...imagine him playing 3 more seasons of 1300 yard seasons...finishes his career in the Top 5 rushing and you throw a few more Pro Bowls on top of it.

 

[Aso]

I think it was a blessing for him that he left in '04. He would've been out of the league probably by 06 or 07 if he kept the workload he had in 02 and 03. Dave Wannstadt worked him to death which is why he ypc average took a drastic drop.

 

[ryne candy]

Remembering fearing him in college, yet thinking how dumb N.O. was for trading all those picks for him. I don't think anyone could live up to that trade. The one bright spot I have of him (bad for him) is being present to see him lose against A&M @ College Station his last year.

 

[JOHNNYTHECLOWN]

Always been a big fan, especially when he went to MIA and was pounding the shit outta the Pats... it was hard to not root for him

Also, good for him for doing something that he wanted... the almighty dollar doesn't own that man

 

[Rohtang]

Retiring to smoke weed everyday!!!!!!

 

[Rudi]

I'd get high with Ricky

 

[BrntO4Life]

The one bright spot I have of him (bad for him) is being present to see him lose against A&M @ College Station his last year.

Uh... Ricky's final season ended in Austin like this:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7nSNJiF-m8"]Ricky Williams Passes Tony Dorsett - YouTube[/ame]

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Remembering fearing him in college, yet thinking how dumb N.O. was for trading all those picks for him. I don't think anyone could live up to that trade. The one bright spot I have of him (bad for him) is being present to see him lose against A&M @ College Station his last year.

And yet the Redskins couldn't spin that into even sniffing the Super Bowl- they were able to get Champ Bailey and Jon Jansen out of that deal, and the ability to draft both LaVar Arrington and Chris Samuels, and they never made it to a conference championship.

I thought Williams would have continued to stick around, especially considering how close Baltimore came to a Super Bowl, but everyone has already pointed out that he makes his own decisions on his own terms.

 

[NAHSTE]

Shame on anyone who questions Ricky's desire or claims he "wasted" his talent. Hell of a career, and he did it his way.

 

[BrntO4Life]

How disgusting was it that Ricky Williams and Priest Holmes shared the same backfield at Texas for two years?

 

[Cornelius]

How disgusting was it that Ricky Williams and Priest Holmes shared the same backfield at Texas for two years?

Almost as disgusting as Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas sharing a backfield at OK State.

 

[ralaw]

Success is a Limitation?

People tend to assume there are limits to what they can contribute to the world. When we are young, we start off with dreams of grandeur about what we want to be when we grow up. The way I see it, our dreams, like everything else in this reality, are composed of two things: essence and matter, similar to the idea of soul and body.

As kids, our dreams are limited only by the matter or material from which they are made, represented by our environment. We are at the mercy of and what our environment thinks is possible and whether or not the environment can or will nurture our dreams.

I was very fortunate to have a mother who always taught me that I could be anything I wanted to be. However, from an environmental standpoint, I was at the disadvantage of being a minority of low socio-economic status. When I looked around my world, I took the essence/soul of my dream and the only form or material I could find to contain it was as an athlete or entertainer. Those were my choices as I saw them, based on my environment. That was the high end of what was possible from what I saw around me. I did not feel I had access to much more.

One of the main motivations for reigniting my foundation was that I came into the realization that all of my issues as a football player, and in life in general, began after I reached the top of the mountain. What else was there? No matter what I did after winning the Heisman Trophy, I always ended up feeling limited. I was able to achieve so much success so easily that I had no motivation to simply keep mastering the same thing over and over again. In this type of reality, a person must constantly put himself down in order to motivate himself to get up again. It was not enough to take on the regular challenges as they came, instead extra effort must be made to create even more, even tougher challenges and obstacles. Being in that reality is a vicious cycle that did nothing but make me realize how futile and counter-productive that kind of success could be.

I knew I could be the best football player — I had a trophy as proof, right? — so I sought ways to challenge myself differently. I started to see how much abuse my body could take a without having to do what I saw everyone else doing to recover. I became interested in how amazing our bodies are and how, if we take care of them, they will take care of us.

As a result, I take a lot less pain medication than most football players and eat much less, too. Combining that with six years of intensive study of various spiritual, mind-body and energy-healing modalities gives me an extremely unique perspective on ways to generate, create and institute innovative strategies that will benefit not only athletes of all types but can also provide possible remedies to the healthcare crisis we are experiencing in our country today. When I allow myself to meditate on the limitless possibilities, I come into the expansiveness of being able to provide a greater contribution than I ever thought possible.

My world can be so much larger than that football and its sidelines that confine. To me, that is what the Ricky Williams Foundation is all about. We all have limitations. Whether that limitation is poverty or success, I aim to help people reach beyond the fiction that is their perceived limits. Today I am asking you to assist me and the Ricky Williams Foundation change children’s future from limited to limitless, please make a donation today at www.RickyWilliamsFoundation.com.

Namaste and yours in limitless dreams,

~ Ricky Williams

http://www.rickywilliams.tv/

 

[Senser81]

Maybe a Hall of Famer if he doesn't take a sabbatical from the league. 10,000 yard rusher, and left in the prime of his career...imagine him playing 3 more seasons of 1300 yard seasons...finishes his career in the Top 5 rushing and you throw a few more Pro Bowls on top of it.

Possible, but unlikely. He had a huge year in Miami, with a terrible coach, QB, and O-line. I think Wannstedt overused Ricky, and the next year Ricky got more beat up than any player I've ever seen in NFL history. He had no blocking whatsoever, Fiedler was no threat to complete a pass, and Ricky was carrying the ball 25-30 times a game for maybe 3 yards per carry and was getting killed.

I think he needed the sabbatical just to rest his body. I blame Wannstedt for ruining his career.

 

[Senser81]

Almost as disgusting as Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas sharing a backfield at OK State.

Almost as disgusting as Penn State having Jon Witman AND Brian Milne at fullback.

I didn't know Linda Cohn posted on VSN.

 

[f16harm]

Possible, but unlikely. He had a huge year in Miami, with a terrible coach, QB, and O-line. I think Wannstedt overused Ricky, and the next year Ricky got more beat up than any player I've ever seen in NFL history. He had no blocking whatsoever, Fiedler was no threat to complete a pass, and Ricky was carrying the ball 25-30 times a game for maybe 3 yards per carry and was getting killed.

I think he needed the sabbatical just to rest his body. I blame Wannstedt for ruining his career.

Exactly. Dave Wannstedt not only derailed Ricky's career, but he also is the prime fuckwad that sent this organization into a tailspin. Fiedler as the choice to succeed Marino, trading away a ton of draft picks (partially to acquire ricky), drafting like shit, and then driving Ricky into the ground because it was his only horse to ride to save his coaching career.

Over the years many Dolphins insiders, beat writers, and Ricky himself in so many words...have all but confirmed the reason Ricky took the sabbatical is because of Wannstedt. He thought Wannstedt was a joke, and when he and Spielman drafted no help for Ricky on offense during that offseason he said fuck it.

I 100% agree with Larry though. If Ricky plays those 3 years he is a Hall of Famer. He's 26th in history in rushing. Every eligible player aside from Bettis in spots 1-18 are already in the HOF, with Curtis Martin set to go in, and Bettis and Tomlinson shoe-ins. I think Edgerrin James and Fred Taylor are the only others in 1-18 that are not in the HOF. so if Ricky plays those 3 years he'd be top 10 for sure, maybe top 5 or 6. He'd be a lock.

 

[Cornelius]

Almost as disgusting as Penn State having Jon Witman AND Brian Milne at fullback.

I didn't know Linda Cohn posted on VSN.

I could pass for a more attractive female than Linda Cohn and my tits aren't as saggy, but thanks.