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Holy Schmokes!! Ricky Williams Retired

Lucky said:
I don't know if this has been brought up, but there has been a rumor floating around that Ricky told his buddy Travis Minor about retiring much earlier than he did the team. It's said that Ricky waited until the top RB's, like Eddie George, were off the market so Minor would have the best opportunity to win the starting RB gig. Only those guys know if it's true or not, be it would help explain why Ricky waited so late in the summer to call it quits.
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If true, that would make me even more furious were I a Dolphins front office type, player, or fan. Ricky Williams doesn't get to make personell decisions. That is up to the FO and coaching staff. You don't delay an important decision just to put your buddy in the best posostion just because he is your buddy. If Minor is good enough to deserve the starting nod, then he should have to earn it. I have lost a lot of respect for Captain Ganja.
 
Did anyone get in an uproar about the Cowgirls unloading Chad Hutchinson this week? Don't think so. Like McMike said it's a two way street. The best way to handle this is let him go on about his merry way. No one player is bigger than the game itself.
 
Another thought on Williams quick exit ...
Just think of all the little kids who begged their parents to buy them a $150 Ricky Williams jersey. How would you like to explain to them about their hero?
A lot of things come in to play in this situation, not just someone quitting their job because they want to go off into the sunset and smoke pot.
 
__V__ said:
Well they are not the same level player and this is not IBM (using a simple workplace analogy ie: its easy to replace you). This is a game of skill. Williams quitting this week would be like David Carr quitting this week. The Chad is a different level player and is not being counted on by his team and his fans like Carr or Williams is.
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I tend to think classless goes beyond the quality of person(s) involved. The Cowboys have known for a long time they would let Hutchinson go--the timing definitely affects his ability to catch on with another team. I don't see why they couldn't have been classier about giving him that courtesy just as Williams could have and should have given his team as much notice as possible. Did they have to--no, but neither did Williams have to. Would it have been classier if Williams had let the Dolphins know earlier--sure, and so would it have been if the Cowboys had released Hutchinson two months ago.
 
I believe the fans pay the owner and he in turn pays the player. Last time I checked players didn't own NFL franchises. I think we need to have a 9 plus page post every time an owner decides to cut a player under contract whom is on the wrong side of 30. As a matter of fact, I think I will be that burden bearer. I think owners should think of the fans when their favorite players are being cut because they don't want to pay them.
 
I don't either V. I just see a vast difference. While I agree the Pokes could have/should have cut Hutch earlier, it's a huge difference in how it affects the team. In addition, NFL contracts are not guranteed, but that's what signing bonuses are for. Hutch got a signing bonus of some sort to sign I'm sure. In one situation, you have a journeyman QB trying like heck to beat out 3 others, and can't do it. In the other, you have a marquee player that potentially has a huge impact on the Fins season, who walks out on his contract a week before camp opens. I just don't see the anology. Using that logic, every time a team cuts someone, we're suppsed to throw a big pity party, and raise money to make sure his kids can squeeze into college. Bologna. Let em eat cake :popcorn:
 
While I agree the Pokes could have/should have cut Hutch earlier, it's a huge difference in how it affects the team...Using that logic, every time a team cuts someone, we're suppsed to throw a big pity party, and raise money to make sure his kids can squeeze into college. Bologna. Let em eat cake
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Who is talking about how it affects the team? Does Williams leaving affect the team more or less than Hutchinson leaving regardless of whether it was one hour notice or 5 months?--sure it does. The discusssion was what was classy. If that is the standard then why is a team held to a less classy standard than a player?

P.S. I really don't care but either both decisions were ok or both were classless--just don't see the "vast difference"--so Hutchinson sucked, we get to treat him like dirt--nope, not buying it.
 
No "V", sometimes owners pay players too much and can't afford to keep them (i.e. honor the players' contract) so the owners have to cut that player.

No one cares to stop and think about how that player's family must now deal with moving or other changes involved. I mean, if you signed a 5 year $5 million per contract (in good faith) and the owner decides to cut you at the end of your 3rd year......you might be a little ticked that your "contract" has been voided and you and yours will lose that $10 million! Maybe you were at the top of your game and still able to produce (Eddie George, Marcus Allen, etc.) but because the owner went over his invisible budget, you and yours must now figure out what to do!

Granted the decisions might be easier if you dealt with that $15 million from the previous 3 years in an intelligent way. That's beside the point.

If the fans actually paid the players' salaries, why don't we have more of a say in what happens with the team? Like we were the stock holders and we had annual stockholders' meetings. We would discuss things like player movement, draft selection, FA acquisitions, coaching changes, etc.

Also, the NFL is "like" a business. Mostly from the aspect of money exchanging hands. The rest is a game/crap shoot! To compare it to IBM or any other top business is silly. BTW, a smart business owner is always looking out for the "team", trying to find that better replacement in case the "ace" should falter. A dumb business owner just runs with the "ace", never realizing that he/she might be gone in the near future.

I should understand your points more because of the fact that Houston fans are just like that. "Keep Hakeem until he can no longer walk...he is the Dream after all, he brought us two titles" or "Bagwell & Biggio should remain Astros for life...who cares if they can't produce and they are overpaid!" or "Boselli might make it back....we did sign him for 4 years, we should honor the deal". Typical Houston fans' chatter!

I say cut the bums when they can no longer keep up with the rest. That is why the Astros will lose Carlos Beltran. He is the real future for the Astros to build on, but because they will keep Bags & Bige, the Astros will never make it to the World Series! If Beltran wanted $15 million per, I would find a way to give it to him. Hell, the Astros will lose Bagwell, Biggio & Kent within the next few years...where will Beltran be? Probably with a team in the World Series! Just like all the rest that were passed on because the Astros wanted to keep Bags & Bige!!!
 
The 'Boys knew they were going to cut Chad when they brought in Testaverde. Chad should have looked around and saw 1. They brought in Vinny the knife 2. I'm still not ahead of Carter 3. They got a baseball player to compete at my position.
I've had about 6 jobs in my life and I have been fired about 6 times and I could always tell when I needed to start looking for something else.

Little Ricky Marley just got up one day and said its either the ball or the bong, but I can't do both, it's killing me. I guess he figured the life with the hippie lettuce is greater than life as the tackling dummy for the Patriots miami division practice squad.

Chad knew...but the Cowboys didn't say it, but they showed it and he should have seen it coming all summer.
Ricky was waiting to sober up before making a decision and it took him all summer, What a Party.
Both were untimely but better now than during the season or even worse during a game.
 
Hey V, it seems like Gary Walker was still at the top of his game when he was cut...err...let exposed in the Expansion draft. Seth Payne, Aaron Glenn & Marcus Coleman as well. They were cut because they were overpriced or they were just taking up too much cap room on their respective teams. Boselli was the injured/damaged one that deserved to be cut. The RT was the throw in for the taking of Coleman & Glenn. (I forget the RT's name).

BTW, what are all of you doing now that bought the Boselli jersey? How are your kids coping with that?

That little argument was ridiculous...."what do you tell those people that paid their hard earned money to buy their kids a RW Phins jersey"? Well, what about all of those that bought a TO 49'ers jersey, or an Eddie George Titans jersey? Nothing Iguess...just that the NFL is all about money and less about sports (football).


I thought Chad had setbacks in NFLE because of a shoulder injury. That's why the Boys signed Vinny (well that and the fact that Parcells is destined to make the Boys the Dallas "Parcells"!

Why do all of you get on to a guy that wants to do what he has the right to do? Make some change and then live life to its fullest. I guess he just figures he is in a place in his life where he is finacially secure and healthy and that he wants to live life...not dwindle away until he can no longer fly in an airplane because of the pain the pressure changes cause his body!

How is marijuana any different than underage drinking (that I know half of you participated in or allow your kids to participate in)? They are both illegal, but the beer compaines have more of a sayso than the marijuana companies (oh wait, there are none). Also the tobacco companies would like nothing more than to supress canibus from becoming legal!

Politics and money. I never heard of smoking weed being Texas' number one cause of death!

Ricky is not Derrick Russell!
 
The NFL is a BUSINESS.

People are replaced in a business. That is why Hutchison has/will be released.
The Cowboys don't feel he fits into their BUSINESS. I'm sure Chad is smart enough to know that he stood the chance of being released or "fired" at any time.

So now Chad has the opportunity to move on to another team or find himself a new career. It's the way of the world. Sometimes bad things happen to you and you have to adjust.

Ricky made a decision that he doesn't want to play anymore. He didn't break a law, but to me it was poorly timed and only he can know why he picked this time to do this. But it's his choice.

Comparing Ricky Williams to Chad Hutchison is a little like comparing a Yugo to a Mercedes.
 
Yes, but isn't it funny how a team can cut a player (who has 2 years left on their contract) and the team is not obligated to pay that player his full amount (if any).....no guaranteed contracts in the NFL.

Maybe not funny but it sure is hypoctical!

If the owners keep "making" players pay back past earnings (usually because of signing bonuses), will the so-called NFLPA ensure that players will finally get guaranteed contracts?

How is the timing bad for Ricky? He didn't want to answer anymore questions related to the marijuana test, the rigors of training camp was right around the corner, and maybe after going through the team's mini-camp, he finally made up his mind.

Sounds like perfect timing to me! Bad timing would be during the season or during a game. It's not like the Dolphins brass can't get a player in to help. Besides, it sounds to me like the Dolphins are switching to more of a passing team.....with the signning of AJ Feeley and David Boston. At this rate, Travis Minor fits in perfectly....he is a scat back that catches the ball very well. Plug in Stacy Mack for the goalling, and there you have it!
 
Ricky Williams vs. Travis Minor and Stacy Mack. You are saying that they can fill the void that he left? I dont think so.

And they didnt sign AJ Feeley and Boston to become an air game. They signed AJ to light a fire under one of their QB's ***. And Boston because he can take the pressure off of Chambers. If they had Ricky this year, they would still run the hell out of him.
 
A few days before training camp isn't bad timing?

Of course it is.

It makes it harder for them to find a good FA back. They could have drafted somebody to step in if he had told them at the BEGINNING of the offseason.

It's bad timing for the team. For Ricky who knows? He has his reasons I suppose. I don't imagine that too many Dolphins fans are real happy with him.
Or for that matter his teammates who I would suspect counted on him having a solid year. Or the coaches that build gameplans around his skills.

Perhaps I'm off base but he could have done this with a little more thought to these things. But yea it's his life; he's the one that's got to do what he thinks is best for him. There is no disagreement there.

But I personally think it's a deep wound to the team in an area where they were pretty solid with him back there.
 
What about the speculation that his homosexuality was about to be exposed?
Has he been hitting more than the bong?

A guy who played with Sticky Icky Ricky at UT say that he wasn't much for hard work and pretty much did enough to get by. I dunno how "just enough to get by" wins a heisman but he said most of the skills and strength that #34 has was natural ability and not hard work. I kinda belive him because I don't think he ever showed a tremendous amount of heart on the field.
 
pv1999 said:
What about the speculation that his homosexuality was about to be exposed?
Has he been hitting more than the bong?

A guy who played with Sticky Icky Ricky at UT say that he wasn't much for hard work and pretty much did enough to get by. I dunno how "just enough to get by" wins a heisman but he said most of the skills and strength that #34 has was natural ability and not hard work. I kinda belive him because I don't think he ever showed a tremendous amount of heart on the field.
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I remember after Ricky was traded to Miami, he was signing stuff at this card show in Houston, when he was through I saw him getting up and I noticed he had on these huge ankle weights, and the season had just ended. What kind of slacker that just gets by on his natural abilitys would be doing that?
I don't know, I just never got the feeling he wasn't a hard worker.
 
V, just how does it say that if a player is cut from a team, it is not the responsibility of the team to pay his remaining contrct, but it is the responsibility of the player to his team IF he decisdes to leave early (e.g. RW retiring). Granted the idea of a contract (in theory) is to honor that contract, which clearly stipulates guidelines and agreed upon conditions. Of course, I doubt any of us know the details of RW's contract, in terms of voideable years, paybacks, etc.

Obviously if a player is signed to a 4 year contract, he has made the team, and the team is therefore obligated to honor the terms & conditions of the contract. Otherwise teams and players would not agree to contracts based on the fact that they are not credible, consaidering that neither party really gives a flip about them.....but I am only commenting based on the fact that the contracts are binding agreements, meant to be honored.

WWJD, so how would a FA back or drafted rookie replace RW? In theory no RB could replace him despote of "timing". Therefore, with that logic, even if RW had told the Dolphins back in March, do you really think Eddie George, Antwoin Smith, Charlie Garner, Duce Staley, or Corey Dillion or any of the rookie RBs could have filled RW's place on the Fins? Do you think any of those guys could have carried the ball 40 times a game (or 400 times a year) not to mention carrying the hopes of the whole team or city on their backs? HELL NO!

So obviously, timing is not the true issue, it is simply the fact that RW has retired and no one will ever replace him.....sort of like Barry Sanders in Detroit. Somehow, by some miracle, Minnesota has been able to get by just fine without Robert Smith.......funny how they now have 3 quality RBs capable of being the main guy.

If David Carr decides to retire next March for whatever reason, religion, family, Momentom BMW commercials, etc.; will any of you be easier on him than RW? Or will you all react to the fact that the Texans are now left scrambling to fill the void that he will create, possibly setting the team back 3 or 4 years?
 
I didn't say anybody would replace him that would be of the same caliber of Ricky but certainly the team would have benefitted with more notice.

They could have maybe signed the guy from Cincy; the guy from Philly....the timing was horrid for the team.

Now I read that he has attended all meetings required of him this off-season and in fact gave a pep talk not so long ago to some teammates at a meeting about team improvement and so forth.

I don't get the timing of it...I'd be really teed off if I were a Dolphin fan or a member of that team or coaching staff.

But it's his life; he has to live with his decisions and he's the only one that can make them.
 
Please, I doubt any of his teammates really care about him leaving. If anything else, they are glad.

Think the WRs are unhappy? No, they wiull now get a chance to get the ball.

Only ones upset are the Defense (will no longer get the long rests between possessions) and the QBs (they will now be required to do some quarterbacking, a monkey can hand the ball off 40 times a game).

Nowadays, players are only concerned about themselves and getting "theirs". See TO or any other recent Free Agent. Do you think any of them have any thought of team loyalty?

Well, the Patriots do, but what do you expect from a group of Has-beens and last chance players? They have nothing else to look forward to except that last chance to do something!
 
Mike.. If you want to think the Dolphin players are glad that their best offensive weapon is gone I cannot convince you otherwise.

It would be equal to Emmitt Smith quitting the Cowboys at the height of his career.

It would be equal to Dom Davis walking away from the Texans tomorrow.

It's not hard to understand. He has a right to do what he did. Nobody disputes that. But the fact that he has made it very tough on his teammates is irrefutable. Sure they'll find another RB. I don't even know who they have on their roster.

But I think..in my opinion...it has got to be upsetting to the team because he is a top notch player. And you don't just replace those guys on the spur of the moment.

Adios.
 
Trust me, those guys are so numb to player movement, that it is no different than a player leaving via Free Agency. Both reasons (RW's & FA) are more of personal reasons. It's just that too many cannot understand leaving that does not involve getting paid. Maybe that is the biggest problem here. If he had gone to another team, it would just be "a part of the business".

Players nowadays do not put all of their hopes on a certain player because it is seen as a business, not a team sport. Players understand that any year, at any moment, a teammate will be gone.

Why can't any of you understand that it is more of a blow ti the fans, not the team like many of you keep stating. As if he dissappointed the team, no just the fans...the ones most of you identify with.
 
MikeMc said:
Trust me, those guys are so numb to player movement, that it is no different than a player leaving via Free Agency.
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McKinney Responds to Ricky...
Posted on: 2004-07-28
seth_mckinney.jpg


[Sun-Sentinel] After being told of lineman Seth McKinney's comments to ESPN Radio, Ricky Williams answered, "I owe Seth an explanation? That guy owes me. I almost got my head taken off last year because of him."

To this, McKinney replied:

"What Ricky seems to misunderstand is that in a team setting, people are accountable to each other," McKinney wrote Tuesday, by e-mail. "He said he doesn't owe me anything. That would be true if we had no association with each other. However, we are on a TEAM. That's the association we have -- teammates. He owes me AND I owe him -- that's the reality of it. I owe him to block to the best of my ability. I owe him because he makes an offensive line look better than it really is. He owes me to run to the best of his ability, and that is all he owes me as a TEAMMATE. I expect nothing more than that, however I expect nothing less. I may have let someone 'take his head off.' However, I NEVER quit on him."



I guess some do care Mike.
 
""I didn't quit football because I failed a drug test," Williams said. "I failed a drug test because I was ready to quit football."

-Thanks man, I'll be sure to try and explain this to my kid. Bad enough we have to fight drugs in school, now we have to explain why a talented RB can just quit his job and and can focus on smoking all day. Great.

Big difference in him wanting (deserving) more money through Free Agency and quitting. 5 years and still very healty and he quits. He still has boat loads of money so the guaranteed money is what players focus on more. The contract is just present value guage, players and owners adjust it all the time. Players can holdout and put a stanglehold on team just as well as a GM can cut him for last of performance, it's an equal balance. But the players still get guaranteed money if they are let go, while there is no guarantee that he will perform even to his present value contract. Take the new contract by E. Manning for instance. $20 mil guaranteed and he could be a total flop. The owner runs the risk of a player not performing and a player runs the risk of getting cut for that, but still gets the guaranteed money. Seems fairly equal to me.
 
More from Ricky "Cheech" Williams. This guy makes the movie Up in smoke, seem like a classic Shakespeare play. This article is similar to the one just posted, but a bit more indepth...

The Hippie Lettuce made me quit!

Among other revelations...

In emphasizing that his lifestyle choices, rather than the failed tests, had driven his decision to retire from football, Williams told the Herald that he sees nothing wrong with smoking marijuana -- that in fact, it's "just a plant." He also said he admired reggae singer Bob Marley, who was reputed to smoke it every day before his death.

Also, Williams, who has been diagnosed with a social-anxiety disorder and was taking the anti-depressant Paxil, told the paper that he'd stopped taking the medication he'd once been a spokesman for. He said it interfered with his diet.

''Marijuana is 10 times better for me than Paxil,'' he said.
 
The management side move that is even in the same ballpark as what Ricky pulled was the Lawyer Milloy waiver move last year. The Patriots wave the guy just a few days before the opener. If they felt that they needed to cut his salary they should have done it a LONG time before that.
 
"Didn't Bob Marley die from a brain tumor?"

From Yahoo.com:
More than you wanted to know ...

The charismatic, beloved Jamaican singer who introduced reggae infused with Rastafarian themes died from a cancerous brain tumor on May 11, 1981, in Miami, Florida. He was only 36 years old.

Born on February 6, 1945, to an English father and a Jamaican mother, Robert Nesta Marley grew up in Trenchtown, an impoverished yet comfortable community near Kingston. Along with Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingston, and a few others, Marley went on to form the Wailers in 1964. By the '70s, the group was an international success.

The first indication that something was amiss with Marley's health came in May of 1977. While on tour in France, Marley re-injured a right toe during a soccer game. The injury refused to heal and instead quickly worsened -- the entire nail came off and doctors recommended amputation. Citing religious beliefs, a limping Marley refused the surgery and gamely continued on tour. Later that summer, Marley finally allowed an orthopedic surgeon to perform a skin graft on the toe, and the procedure was deemed "a success."

In September of 1980, a weakened Marley almost fainted onstage while performing in New York. The next day, he collapsed while jogging in Central Park. Marley was diagnosed with a brain tumor (a result of the untreated cancer in his toe) and given less than a month to live. Despite the grim news, Marley played one final show in Pittsburgh before being flown to Miami. There doctors verified that the singer had cancer in the brain, lung, and stomach. Eight months later, Marley passed away.

Marley's death was the cause for much rumor and speculation. Some credited his survival for so long despite the widespread cancer to his marijuana use, while others have attributed his death to nefarious causes.
 
For the last time, Ricky Williams owes noone an explanation as to why he quit football. It's his loss plain and simple. Deal with it.
 
kbourda said:
For the last time, Ricky Williams owes noone an explanation as to why he quit football. It's his loss plain and simple. Deal with it.
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he does owe the dolphins some clams though.
 
Genuine said:
I remember after Ricky was traded to Miami, he was signing stuff at this card show in Houston, when he was through I saw him getting up and I noticed he had on these huge ankle weights, and the season had just ended. What kind of slacker that just gets by on his natural abilitys would be doing that?
I don't know, I just never got the feeling he wasn't a hard worker.
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Those were not ankle weights...
That was his stash and he was too paranoid to let his little "just a plant" garden out of his sight.
 
NFL | Marijuana Played Large Role in R. Williams' Retirement - from www.KFFL.com
Fri, 30 Jul 2004 11:10:51 -0700

Dan Le Batard and Jason Cole, of the Miami Herald, reports retired RB Ricky Williams admitted Thursday, July 29, that marijuana was more of a factor in his retirement than he originally indicated. Williams added that he learned of a third failed test for marijuana and upcoming suspension just days before informing Miami Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt of his decision to quit football.
 
It is good that he chose to quit rather than "disgrace" himself with another weed case. He could tarnish the heisman (OJ) or blemish the image of UT (Benson) What would Earl and Doak (RIP) think of their second coming now?

I guess somebody needed to replace Barkley as the biggest sports jerk.
 
infantrycak said:
If the Dolphins sue Ricky to receive part of the signing bonus back, it could be an opening for exactly this. Dolphins sue--Ricky agrees to pay back half of what is sought in exchange for a release of his contract. 2005, hello Raiders.
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Pending a 4 game suspension for violating the substance abuse policy. However, it looks as though the Dolphins will sue Ricky.

Sunday, August 8, 2004

ESPN.com news services

Dolphins May Try And Recoup Money From Williams

The Dolphins want payback from Ricky Williams. Literally. An angry Wayne Huizenga will try to recoup more than $5 million paid in incentive money to the retired Williams over the last two years, a source close to the Dolphins owner told the Miami Herald on Saturday.

''Wayne is incredibly [angry] about what Ricky did,'' the source told the newspaper. "He has his lawyers together, and he's going after all the money the team paid Ricky. He wants to make sure this never happens again."

Huizenga could not be reached for comment by the newspaper.

Last month, Williams suddenly retired after five seasons in the NFL, stunning the Dolphins and the league. The Dolphins now have to try to figure out how to replace Williams' 1,372 rushing yards of last season. To make matters worse, the Dolphins lost receiver David Boston earlier this month with a knee injury.

Under the conditions of the revised contract Williams signed before the 2002 season, the Dolphins can seek reimbursement of any incentives he earned if he retired early or held out.

Williams earned approximately $5.3 million in incentives from the Dolphins during the past two years.

Before he filed retirement paperwork with the NFL, Williams talked about filing for bankruptcy and letting the team come after the money in court. He said coming after a man with three children might be embarrassing to the team.
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Ricky
 
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