He appears to become friends with every coach the Phins get upon his return from yet another suspension.. He must be quite the charmer.. I've always liked Ricky even after all the crap he put this team through.. I find him to be an interesting character, and apparently all these coaches must think so too.. I am particularly surprised by Parcells' seeming fondness for the quirky stoner.. I dont think its just his talent that all these coaches like.. It seems that he is indeed a hardworker and a good teamate ON the field... Its the plubicity stuff that always seems to do him in.
Bill Parcells knows how to push the right buttons with Ricky Williams. One example: Parcells told Williams that former UM running back Ottis Anderson was a Super Bowl MVP for his Giants at age 34. That story inspired Williams, who turns 31 next month.
I happen to think Ricky has a legit medical problem and isn't out just to put the team through crap. This isn't a shot at you, just the fact that people seem to either not care or are misinformed to the seriousness of his problem.
I am quite aware that Ricky has a legit medical problem.. Social Anxiety Disorder is serious.. But that still doesnt stop the fact that he has indeed put the team through a lot of crap.. I mean, and alcoholic father has a legit medical problem, but as a result of that, he still puts his family through a lot of crap..
If Ricky stays until he is 34, we will have a new name for Ricky: Dolphins all time leading rusher, he is very close right now, maybe 2,000yds or so away from passing Larry Csonka as the All Time leading rusher. I personally love Zonk, but if Ricky can do that, I think he will have redeemed himself on the football field for the stuff that has happened over the years, I like that thought.
Nice post. That would be awesome, Ricky is my favorite football player of all time and I would love to see him do that. SIDENOTE: Instead of starting a whole new thread about this small fun fact of Ricky, I thought I would post it here: Full name is Errick Lynne Williams An avid photographer, Ricky has taken pictures at several South Florida events, including Marlins games and the NASDAQ-100 tennis tournament. On occasion, he’s even shot Dolphins training camp practices in between reps. Wierd, never knew his name was Errick lol.
Using your analogy here, so did Saban....??? Look, Ricky can do what it takes to be a solid citizen, the question is will he ??
So true. For some reason I have never hated RW...I guess I should but I somehow felt that the administration was worse.... Would love to see RW make a late come back and make this team respectable, even at 500. I like RW and will always....but thats me I suppose. Would still take him in a NYM over RB....on the field I might add (G).
I think Ricky's hard work ethic wins him over. Even at his worst he always is said to practice hard and lets face it, he is a load of talent. Hopfully he can keep the pipe down and just play!
I stopped feeling sorry for Ricky once I read that he refused to take his prescription medication in favor of weed. Instead of taking care of his problem legally, he decided that he was going to do what he wanted regardless what the league rules are. That to me shows that he didn't care about his teammates and that he can't be counted on.
I don't feel sorry for him, I respect the fact he has a medical condition and don't hold him responsible for having it.
I don't hold it against him for having social anxiety disorder, I hold it against him for how he chooses to deal with it. He's a big boy and he can make up his own mind. He continually chooses the wrong way to deal with it.
I think how he deals with his condition, is a direct result of the problem itself. He's made it clear the pot makes him feel better. There is plenty of proof in medical science pot helps other medical problems. It's not beyond the realm of possible that pot helps Ricky cope. I think the fans that are upset or feel Ricky could have done things differently are speaking with little knowledge of the medical condition itself. Till you experience the condition first hand you have no idea what it's like or how to deal with it, maybe you would take the same path Ricky did, maybe you wouldn't. I happen to think Ricky the person, is more important than my desire to see my team win a SB. Don't get me wrong, I love my team, just not more then a persons health, no matter who they are. As you can see, Dolphins football is important to me or I wouldn't spend so much time talking Dolphin football. I just try to put things into perspective. I thank God I have no serious medical conditions and I don't have to deal with such things, so I tend to appreciate those that have to deal with things I don't.
I don't want to turn this thread into a discussion on marijuana, but the effectiveness of pot in medical cases is subjective. I've had this discussion many times and haven't once heard a good case to support it, other than links to pro marijuana sites. Again, Ricky is a big boy, and just like all of the other big boys in this world, he needs to play by the rules. He was diagnosed by a medical professional and he was given a prescription by a medical professional, Ricky decided that he was smarter than the doctor and went the way of self-medication. If he wants to sit in his house and puff away, more power to him, just don't come crying because the bills are piling up and the NFL won't let you back in because you continually break their rules. Excuses are for people who don't want to try, is Ricky a man or a child?. Actually I have an aunt who has had SAD for the better part of the past 10 years, infact I saw her today at the hospital. She takes her meds and she's fine. Ricky brings this all on himself because he chooses to self-medicate. Once he gets caught, he gets a suspension which brings more negative attention to himself.....it's a sad endless circle. But he has a choice, does he want to play in the NFL and follow their rules or not? Does he want to treat his condition legally and effectively or does he want to do it his own way which has proven to cause more problems than it actually helps? To me, Ricky is immature, and just by listening to him talk and seeing the very....umm....what's the word I'm looking for?......"whacky" way he has spent the past 5 years just reinforces that feeling. I want him to be free of his problems as much as anybody, but he's not getting any sympathy from me when he chooses to ignore his doctors orders. It's Ricky's responsibility to take his meds, to make it seem as though he is a victim is silly. Again, excuses are for people that don't want to try.
Its not that simple.. Prescription meds give some bad sideeffects.. Something marijuana doesnt really have, well, except for the whole illegality thing (and munchies). I think he even stated he went back to weed because the prescription meds were giving him unwanted side effects.
Ricky doesn't strike me as a guy who is very trustworthy, so the "upset stomach" excuse that he gave doesn't mean much to me. If it is the truth, there are plenty of other medications that a doctor can prescribe. I hurt my shoulder and was in tremendous pain last spring (at one point they thought I tore my rotator cuff) and I was on pain medication that really messed with my stomach, I went back to the doctor and she gave me a different one........problem solved! It wasn't hard, I didn't need to beg or complain, I didn't jump off the deep end and start smokin' the wacky tobacky, I just made an appointment and asked. I think Ricky's problem (aside from SAD) was more of a "cultural" thing. For a guy that already has issues with dealing with people and fitting in, he saw prescription meds as a threat in a way. By taking legal meds, he was admitting that he had a problem, or maybe in his eyes he felt that by taking them he was admitting that there was something "wrong" with him in a "crazy" kind of way. Would someone with those personal issues be more likely to experiment with pot (which has a "cool" label attached to it) or would he rather take the meds that "crazy people take"? The guy has a serious problem and needs to deal with it in a responsible way.
I think that's a subjective opinion, after all who's to say what medication works best. Everyone is different and unlike synthetic alternatives Marijuana is an all natural substance. Ricky is likes the healthy lifestyle. I myself try to avoid any medication created in a lab. I don't understand your thinking here, were not talking about getting a drivers licenes's so you don't in trouble for driving without one. Or staying away fro strip joints because you always seem to get into fights when you go to one. We're talking about a health issues. You also seem to be under the delusion the medical field has the world figured out. I hear horror stories all the time about medical malpractice. It happens all over the world in every single hospital. Heck you can't watch a Viagra commercial with hearing a long list of things you need to look out for just so you can have sex with your wife without something funky happening to another part of your body....and that's just one the 100's of 1000's of medication on the market. This is not a simple follow the rules issue, it's a health concern, one that affects each person differently. Ricky may very well be immature, but who are we to judge? Are you perfect? Do you always make the best decisions? Would you understand if your Aunt wasn't being helped by her medication to find an alternative, that makes her feel comfortable if she did, would you judge her as harshly? It's a whole lot more complicated then what you see on the surface. To judge someone who has a medical issue is extremely unfair. I hope nothing but the best for you Bro and I hope you never have to make the decision to do something you don't want to do or are forced to do just to live a somewhat normal life. I feel God has blessed me so far with good health and I sure as heck would wish the same for everyone else.
So is tobacco and look how many people it kills. It's about responsibility, it's about following the rules of the NFL and it's about his health. Ricky knew that smoking pot was against NFL rules, yet he chose to ignore his doctors as well as the rules of the NFL for which he was an employee. He made a conscious decision to break the rules and medicate himself. It's very simple and he let his teammates and the fans down. Yes his health is more important than a game, but he obviously wanted back in the NFL enough to go through all of the trouble to be reinstated. Because he decided to do things his way, he only brought more negative attention on himself, which puts him right back at the beginning. Yes doctors make mistakes, but this is a very simple case to treat. It's not like it's a mysterious illness and the doctor just did exploratory surgery and left his watch in the patient's stomach and he died as a result. SAD is as common to doctors as the flu, they tell you what's wrong and they give you the appropriate meds and send you home. If a guy walks into a doctors office with pneumonia and the doctor gives him medication, if the guy refuses to take it and goes home to smoke pot and then ends up dying (or his condition worsens), is that medical malpractice or was the guy just a bloody idiot? Blaming the medical field in this case is really reaching to justify bad behavior. Why yes, yes I am. I would feel bad for my aunt, but if she chose to ignore what her doctor said and decided to self-medicate with anything, she no longer has my sympathy. Again, it's about responsibility and commonsense. Doctors go to school for this and they are trained to understand, diagnose and help their patients. I don't understand why people feel they know more than people who are the professionals. Yes mistakes are made, but blaming the doctors is assuming that Ricky either knows more than them or has never made a mistake. You say "to judge someone with a medical condition is unfair". To judge them in a negative way for their condition is very unfair, but to judge them in a negative way for the way they choose to treat their condition isn't. Right back at ya
Ricky has screwed up a few times in life, but who hasn't? He knows he risks a lifetime ban if he gets caught again with the weed. I don't think we have anything to lose. If he screws up, we still have Ronnie Brown, and Lorenzo Booker. Hopefully Ricky can stay healthy and help our running game.
I think we can all agree that Ricky is a beast when he's healthy and conditioned, which we all hope he can get back to. He's also a genuinely nice guy so it makes it hard to just plain hate him, even if he did make dumb decisions in the past. So we should all be on the same page that if he was ever given the perfect chance to redeem himself, now would be the time. He's got the time and hopefully the motivation to get into his peak physical shape. If he does that this offseason and stays away from the MJ then I think we'll all be happy with him.
Its amazing how many times we can have this exact same thread over the course of a few years. Then again, it's pretty amazing that Ricky and JT are the last remaining players from the Dolphins team that featured Ricky in 2002. Especially since Ricky retired, what happened to the other 51 guys?
Not only that but Anderson was the 'Comeback Player of the Year' that season no? Hopefully, history repeats itself....
Ricky has personel problems. Yeah, it's easy for us to sit back here from a distance and say this and that. But, until you walk in the shoes of the man who has the problem....I can't judge him harshly. Sure I can say what a waste of talent,bla,bla,bla,what a back he could been. What I see is a man who came out of college with very high expectations, thrown into the limelight and microscope. Had this disorder which was obivious from the start(helmet on during interviews). Heck, he didn't even get help until we got him here in Miami I believe. Now that Ricky has gone through a more serious type of therapy, etc... I wish him the best. I wish him to run like the wind. I wish him to run wild for the next few years, as long he is in a Dolphin uniform. If he has gotten the help he needed and he can see clearly what he has to do in life. I wish him luck. I hope he now comfortable with the man in the mirror. I hope he now can become the player everyone wants him to be(including me). If it dosen't work out... I can't judge him harshly. I never have had the personality disorder. I have never walked in his shoes. Go Phins!