Ricky Williams

Ricky Williams, the Miami Dolphins star running back for the last two seasons and the only true threat on their offense, has abruptly retired from football.   Many are shocked at this, and are questioning his sanity.  Williams has always been viewed as an eccentric, from his habit in New Orleans of giving interviews with his helmet on, to his aloofness from teammates, to his dreadlocks.  But why should this be so suprising?  We fans see the gridiron and its gladiators as the ultimate heroes, the men we wish we could emulate.  We want their money, their fame, their women.  But how many of us realize the extreme price these men pay for those things.  I've never played myself, other than sandlot, but everytime I read about gatherings of Hall of Famers, I always hear about the constant pain they all live with, the difficulty walking normally, of just getting out of the chair.  This side is rarely shown to the public, and the public rarely wants to hear about it because we want to be like these men.  So a rich man chooses to walk away from his sport he no longer loves while he can still walk without too much agony.  And critics call this crazy.

The only thing I can question is the timing of the decision.  Rather than making the move early in the post-season, which would have allowed the Dolphins to draft a replacement or to pursue one of the handful of experienced free agents who came and went this spring and summer, he waited until just before camp, leaving Miami high and dry.  In my pre-season predictions, I described Miami as having "the worst passing game in the division (though the best running game)."  Clearly this is no longer the case.  Jay Fiedler is the worst quarterback in the division.  (Admittedly, the AFC East is one of the better quarterbacked divisions in the league, with 2 time Super Bowl MVP Brady, Super Bowl runner-up Bledsoe, and Chad Pennington.)  Now, unless the Dolphins can find a top tier running back buried in somebody's depth chart, they will have the worst running game in the division, to go along with the worst passing game.  The Dolphins are going nowhere this season, but to the basement.

The Dolphins have long struggled in the second half of the season, because of the cold weather division games in Buffalo, Foxboro, and New Jersey.  They always seemed to play their rivals in Miami in September and October, and in the snow in December.  This year they got a gift in that their division away games were scheduled first, leaving them on the beach in December.  That was the one thing they had going for them coming into the season.  Now, it won't matter.