Few players in the history of the NFL have had as interesting a career as Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams. At 33, an age of antiquity for an NFL running back, Williams still appears to be nearly as strong as ever before, and he is a major reason the Dolphins are optimistic about the 2010 season. His independent spirit has kept him one of the game’s most intriguing players and his late-career success could even potentially start a trend for other aging running backs.

Williams’ career in the NFL started as few others do following a Heisman Trophy winning season for the University of Texas. New Orleans Saints coach Mike Ditka loved Williams so much that he traded all of the Saints’ 1999 draft picks – everything but his soul, really – for a chance to draft Williams with the fifth overall pick. For a fairly poor Saints team, however, Williams didn’t have a take-off season in his first three years in New Orleans, and it appeared that Ditka’s faith in Williams have been unwarranted.

But Williams proved naysayers very wrong when he was traded to the Miami Dolphins prior to the 2002 season. Freshly motivated, Williams was the prominent workhorse in the league in 2002, racking up more than 1,800 yards on the ground and 16 rushing touchdowns, both career highs. Williams finally had proven that he was an elite NFL rusher worthy of the hype that preceded him, selling plenty of Miami Dolphins tickets in the process.

Unfortunately, though, the success didn’t last, mostly due to the incredible workload that the Dolphins gave him in his first two seasons. Williams averaged more than 387 carries in 2002 and 2003; since, only the 416 carries Larry Johnson had in 2006 has come close, as teams have become more conscientious about burning out their running backs.

From there, Williams’ career got truly bizarre. After failing a third drug test prior to the 2004 season, Williams abruptly retired from the NFL to study holistic medicine at a California university. Though many have questioned his loyalty to his teammates, Williams Kamagra Gold has never regretted the decision and maintains that it was the best decision of his life. Williams then skipped the entire 2004 season before coming out retirement to return to the Dolphins in 2005. Substance problems had him suspended for the 2006 season, though, and Williams swiftly signed with CFL team the Toronto Argonauts, where he played for a fraction of what he made in the NFL. Upon returning to the Dolphins again in 2007, he tore a pectoral muscle in his very first game, ending his season and potentially his career as well.

After Williams’ latest setback, nobody would have blamed him for stepping away from the game for good. He was approaching the age of 30 at the time and would continue to split carries with Ronnie Brown. But, according to Williams, he traded in marijuana for yoga classes and got himself back into game shape, helping him become a significant part of the Dolphins offense in the past two seasons. As the Dolphins hope to get back into the playoffs in 2010, something they seem to have a realistic chance at, Williams will likely be a major part of their success or failure.

With so many ebbs and flows in Williams’ career, it would be easy for Dolphins fans and Cialis Professional NFL fans in general to dislike Williams. The NFL is a serious league, so we’re told, and Williams had difficulty toeing the line. When the team’s best player quits, as he did in 2003, it can sour the mood of any fan, and for good reason. After all, it’s difficult to explain to kids in the stands – the same ones wearing his jersey – why he quit the Dolphins to meet with holy shaman in India and study holistic medicines for no ostensible purpose.

But in light of recent news around the league, it’s getting harder by the day to maintain a grudge against Ricky Williams. In the past few seasons, the NFL has been riddled with serious charges brought against its players, from sexual assault and gun crimes to major felonies involving the slaughter of animals. While Pacman Jones was on his way to strip clubs with stacks of singles, Ricky Williams was doing yoga on mountaintops with holy men.

After being forced to carry the entire Dolphins offense for two full seasons, Williams essentially took a lengthy sabbatical that probably saved his career; other backs to carry similar loads in terms of overall carries recently include Shaun Alexander, Jamal Lewis and Larry Johnson – backs either out of the league or clinging to the ends of their careers. But Ricky isn’t simply surviving in the NFL; in a weird way he’s even thriving. Leave it to Ricky Williams to discover the key to long-term NFL success in a tribal village thousands of miles away from the gridiron.

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Category: Recreation and Leisure/Sports/Football
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