Early Retirement for Ricky Williams

» NYCScribe - Welcome (Running)back?

Ricky Williams has asked the NFL how soon he can return to play for the Miami Dolphins, the team he betrayed shortly before training camp this season with his sudden, and apparently short lived retirement. It's unclear whether Williams must serve a suspension the rest of this season for repeated violations of the league drug program. He has asked the NFL for a hearing to clarify his status, but no date has been set. The most probable cause for Ricky's change of heart is that on Sept. 24, he was ordered by an arbitrator to repay more than $8.6 million to the Dolphins for breaching his contract. Williams and the Dolphins exchanged long distance criticism in the days after he quit, but the Dolphins' 0-4 start - their worst since 1966 - may make them more inclined to take him back. They have scored only two touchdowns in four games without Williams, who rushed for 3,225 in two seasons after being obtained in a trade with New Orleans. Among the reasons that Ricky gave for retiring was a desire to continue smoking marijuana, unhappiness about his contract, a workload he considered excessive, and the gameplan of Miami's new offensive coordinator, Chris Foerster. It now seems that as persuasive as these factors were in convincing Ricky Williams to leave the game, they aren't worth 8 million dollars to him.

-- posted by NYCScribe

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» NYCScribe - Staying retired after all?

Ricky Williams rejected a deal that would have allowed him to serve a four-game drug suspension this season and return to the NFL next year.
The 1998 Heisman Trophy winner needed to let the league know by today so he could be moved from the retired list to the suspended list by the deadline. He would have served the suspension for the Miami Dolphins' final four games, starting Dec. 12 at Denver.

The talks to allow Williams back into the league involved a promise to return to the field next season and to re-enter the NFL drug program immediately, including being tested on a regular basis.

Williams has social-anxiety disorder and was a spokesman for an anti-depressant. He said marijuana helped him after he stopped using the anti-depressant. The eccentric ex-Running Back is currently enrolled in a 17-month course at the California College of Ayurveda in Grass Valley, Calif., studying holistic medicine.

-- posted by NYCScribe

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