What do you guys think of R.Williams
 

:rant: I know this has been posted...but i have to comment of this. Most people would agree everyone has the right to persue happiness, so WHY do people seem to be so upset about Ricky!?!?! would you rather he play and take a pounding for a game he didn't want to play? What are his alternatives? Timing was poor...but what should he say, "hey coach, i'm thinking of retiring"?? Next thing, they'd bring in another RB and are pushing him to renegotiate his contract to pennies, not to mention the media bashing him. He has anxiety disorder, and he can't change that, so media bashing is 20 times worse for him.

apparently he has been saying he wants to retire, and that it was known by those around him that this season was going to be his last no matter what, and he was just playign this year for the team, but decdied he couldnt do that.

Yeah the timing sucks for the team, but what's the old saying that teams always throw around when they cut someone? It's a business?!

I wish Ricky all the luck, I think it's kinda refreshing that guys like Sanders, Smith and now Williams can walk away from the game so easily and in their prime. Just goes to show that there's more to life than just football.

[QUOTE=Mattyk72]Just goes to show that there's more to life than just football.[/QUOTE]

For Ricky though, its pot........ :Smoker: I think he has every right to do what makes him happy but he should have had enough class to do it the proper way. He should have told Wannstadt that he was contemplating it so that the dolphins could have had some type of backup plan. To just up and leave like he did is classless.

Have any of you switched jobs before? if you did, did you just leave or did you do it with a little class and give two weeks notice?

haha, how come when you get fired they dont give you two weeks notice. As far as im concerned he didnt owe them anything and we dont owe our employers anything. Players dont get a two week notice before they are cut so he has every right to do the same.

lol

I think Ricky told everyone (including his coach) he was pretty much deciding to leave... but they were trying to convince him otherwise for a good couple of weeks. I also think it's way more than the pot thing... if someone doesn't want to play anymore, how good is he going to be within the dynamic of the team he plays for? It's still amazing to me how a man can turn away millions of dollars and a rock star lifestyle because he wants more out of his life. He seems like a smart guy (read somewhere he talked to his agent for a half hour about the Da Vinci Code... how many ball players can say that?) who really wants to explore the world.

It also seems in recent interviews, he was really displeased with his FO's lack of addressing offensive options to help his workload. I think he mentioned he felt his carries were going to go up even higher next year (having already led the league in carries/game). It's easy as an armchair q-b to criticize that's part of being a superstar football player, but look at some of those old running backs now- some can't even walk right. And if Ricky wasn't really into being a football superstar in the first place, the decision to protect his elderly years seems to make more sense.

Of course i'm not a dolphin fan and if this would have happened with Portis I may be a little more homer about it hahaha.

I just think what he did was wrong. You dont just turn your back on the team before the season starts. If he is going to retire great. Do it after the season, before the draft, before June when some rbs come up. Not before camp starts.

has bruce smith retired yet?

who r we to tell someone else what's the "right" thing for them to do? He's said he knows that there is going to be an avalanche of negativity towards him over his decision but he's tired of making others happy and wants to finally make himself happy. I say good for you Ricky, go spend time traveling the world, learning, and spending time with your kids.

[QUOTE=Skins fan 44]I just think what he did was wrong. You dont just turn your back on the team before the season starts. If he is going to retire great. Do it after the season, before the draft, before June when some rbs come up. Not before camp starts.[/QUOTE]

I agree he might as well suited up for the first game and then walked off the field during the first play.

I think he was right to leave and I think this quote from Levar is dead on. "I don't want a guy on my team that doesn't want to be here."

peace

I wish him the best of luck and hope he's been smart enough with his money. He did totally screw his team though... don't know if he told the GM/coach and they blew him off, or if he thought it'd create media chaos... but that sucks for them.

Dan LeBatard of the [I]Miami Herald [/I] said on PTI and on Dan Patrick's radio show that one of the things Ricky Williams wants to do is to go to Latin America and learn Spanish. LeBatard and Williams are collaborating on a biography of Williams so LeBatard gets to talk to him a bit more than most folks.

Look, I think education is really great and I admire someone who wants to leran new things. I also think learning other languages is important. Unfortunately, I am fluent in only two languages, English and Profane.

However, I do have one question here:


How hard would it be to learn Spanish in Miami?

[QUOTE=sportscurmudgeon]Dan LeBatard of the [I]Miami Herald [/I] said on PTI and on Dan Patrick's radio show that one of the things Ricky Williams wants to do is to go to Latin America and learn Spanish. LeBatard and Williams are collaborating on a biography of Williams so LeBatard gets to talk to him a bit more than most folks.

Look, I think education is really great and I admire someone who wants to leran new things. I also think learning other languages is important. Unfortunately, I am fluent in only two languages, English and Profane.

However, I do have one question here:


How hard would it be to learn Spanish in Miami?[/QUOTE]

LOL. Not hard at all. There are places down there that say "We speak English" . You don't have to go South America to learn spanish. Buy a freaking video. Its easy to learn.

His timing makes him look selfish and stupid!! He should have let Miami know how he felt in Jan. I think he owes it to his team to play the season!

Had he done this at the end of the year I completely understand where he's coming from. Ricky Williams is a head case. He's absolutely nuts, and he has been since college. He's so painfully shy it hinders him horribly in life.

He owes it to the Dolphins (who have done everything in the world to try to accomidate Ricky) to at least give them warning from the day after their season ends.

Don't be too sure that this is it for Ricky. Looks like he will owe the Dophins $8 Million if he follows through with this retirement. With all of his world travel plans, that may give him some second thoughts...

Of course the union will get him his 60K severence pay, so maybe that will offset it?? LOL

I admit if he were on the Skins, I'd be pissed right now. I understand why and he can quit whenever he wants, but the timing is what's bad here. Football is different from the workplace, but usually in most jobs we're expected to give 2-weeks notice. Football is different, but in my view, before the draft to me would be the equivelent of a "2-week notice". Maybe I am comparing apples to oranges, but thats how I see it. Good luck to him though.
I guess it could have been worse, he could have waited until week 1 of the regular season. I heard he was quite vocal in the off-season meetings with Dolphins about staying together and working as a team. Man some teamates can't be happy right now.

The Truth!
 

He's a Pot-Head!
He wants Pot more than the bucks in FB!

He had failed a drug test, and was facing a 4 game suspension, so his timing is not totally off.

Ricky even turned down a deal to have his head shaved by a
$750,000 sponsor!

[QUOTE=backrow]He's a Pot-Head!
He wants Pot more than the bucks in FB!

He had failed a drug test, and was facing a 4 game suspension, so his timing is not totally off.

Ricky even turned down a deal to have his head shaved by a
$750,000 sponsor![/QUOTE]

actually he was only looking at a fine of four games worth of pay, no suspension. so what if the guy enjoys smoking a little weed every now and again he also wants to spend more time around his 3 kids and not be under the restraint of someone else's schedule.

Here is what I wrote this morning in my daily rant about Ricky Williams:



"I am not full of the milk of human kindness this morning – or if I am, then someone must have laced it with some brown mustard. It has only been a couple of days into the Ricky Williams story cycle and guess what? I am fed up to my ears with this story. I don’t care if Ricky Williams returns to the NFL in the next 30 minutes nor do I care if he never picks up another football in his natural life. I don’t care why he made the decision that he did. I don’t care who talked to him in the last 24 hours or anything they have to say about what he putatively told them in that conversation. I don’t care about comparisons between Ricky Williams and other running backs who retired abruptly. I don’t care about how this will significantly change fantasy football this year. I don’t care what the potential impact might or might not be on Dave Wannstedt’s coaching tenure in Miami. I don’t care to discuss the ethical aspects of Ricky Williams’ telling or not telling his coaches and teammates of this decision earlier in the off-season. I … don’t … care !!

"The reason “I … don’t … care !!” is that the retirement of Ricky Williams is inconsequential to things that are important to mankind. The only impact of his retirement that might be substantial is to the Miami Dolphins and while I wish that franchise no harm and bear no animus toward their fans, the Dolphins and their fans are hardly something that I am going to wring my hands in angst about. Dan LeBatard and Ricky Williams are collaborating on a book – they have been for several years – and LeBatard said that Ricky Williams wants to use the book as the sole medium to explain the reasons and the bases of his decision to leave football. Would that it were to be the case. Since I doubt that I will be reading that pillar of literature, that would mean that I would never need to hear about this again from anyone who actually knows why he left football. That would suit me just fine."


Remember, you asked what I thought about Ricky Williams ...

Few people put as much effort into letting us know they don't care as Curmudgeon!

Obviously, it's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. But in the context of the NFL I think it's a pretty big deal. And this board is primarily about the Redskins and the NFL. That's why "world topics" are off-topic.

But I digress.

I really don't know what to make of RW's situation. Robert Smith said on ESPN Radio today that what Ricky Williams the player did was totally selfish and disrespectful (anyone remember when exactly Smith retired, was it near training camp?) but the player is not as important as the person. And the person had the right to do what he did. It seemed like Williams had been trying to tell people he was contemplating retirement and since no one listened seriously he figured this would be the only way he'd be heard.

Like others have said, as long as it doesn't happen to our Skins...

Arrington said he didtn care if a Skin did it. He said he doesnt want someone on the team that doesnt want to be a part of it anyways. Of course it would still suck if we lost, portis lets say. But players would rather have him gone then on the team. Thats why no one wanted to keep Bailey, he didnt want to play for us. People wanted his skill but you could kinda of tell he just wanst into it much at the end of the year. As Joe Gibbs said when he got the job, we want TRUE redskins.