Ricky Williams does not temporarily regret leaving football in 2004, just two years after winning the NFL racing title. Nor does he regret losing the entire 2006 season after violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Williams doesn’t even regret retiring a year before the Ravens – his third and final NFL team – win the Super Bowl. Instead of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, Williams was actually working as a cameraman when the Ravens defeated the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.
If Williams has any regrets about his career on the NFL roller coaster, it is that he did not retire as a member of the Dolphins, a sentiment he recently shared during an appearance on the Greg Cote Show Podcast.
“I’m not the type of person to be sorry,” said Williams, who recently launched his own podcast. “I have a regret in my football career, and it is that I did not end my career as a dolphin. It would have been great to play in my senior year. [in Miami]. I probably would have played a few more years if I had stayed in Miami and had the opportunity to become the best Dolphins rusher ever. I was perhaps only 400 meters away. ”
Williams actually finished just 301 yards to match the Hall of Famer Larry Csonka as the Dolphins’ all-time race leader. Csonka, the Dolphins’ fullback when Miami won the consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1970s, temporarily left Miami before retiring as a Dolphin after the 1979 season. Williams would have liked to have done the same.
“This is something that is going to be difficult to overcome, that I didn’t finish in Miami,” said Williams. “The Saints (Williams’ first NFL team) were great, but I see my career as being a Miami Dolphin. The way I came back, the way I was embraced by the fans, I will always love Dolphins fans and me. I will remember my time as a Dolphin. ”
Many fans don’t remember, but Williams was on the precipice of greatness at the turn of the century. The winner of the 1998 Heisman Trophy that broke Tony Dorsett’s 22-year record as the leader of the college football career, Williams ran 1,000 yards in his second NFL season while helping the Saints win their first playoff game. Williams ran for more than 1,200 yards in 2001 before being traded to Miami, before the start of the 2002 season. That season, Williams won his first All-Pro selection while leading the NFL with 1,853 yards. The 5-foot-10, 226-pound Williams had a devastating combination of strength, speed and agility that allowed him to beat teams with strength and subtlety.
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Williams said there were many different factors that led to his abrupt retirement shortly before the start of the 2004 season. One factor was the fact that he was leaving what he described as a “horrible” 2003 season, which saw him lead the NFL in shipments for the second consecutive year. But unlike the 2002 season, when he won an NFL racing title with an average of 4.8 yards per load, Williams averaged just 3.5 yards per load in 2003, his worst average since his season. debut. Along with the feeling of having regressed for the first time in his athletic career, Williams grew tired of the Dolphins’ overconfidence in him. Part of that was the team’s move from Jay Fiedler’s quarterback to Brian Griese. Williams said former Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt admitted this when the two met at last year’s Super Bowl.
“[Wannstedt] he kind of laughed and said, ‘You know, I learned a lot. And one of the things I learned is how to trust my quarterback. When you played, I didn’t trust my quarterback. And then, if he threw an incomplete pass or one that looked almost intercepted, I would take the headset and tell Norv [Turner], just give Ricky. Just give it to Ricky.
“I had a lot of loads in 2002, but I also had a lot of yards. I had more loads in 2003, but I had about 500 yards less. It hurts. When you’re 25 loads a game, you’re getting 100 yards, it doesn’t hurt that much. . You’re getting 25 loads a game and you’re doing 50 yards, it hurts. Those two yard gains. “
After attracting the ire of Dolphins fans in 2004, Williams returned to the collective heart of Miami with the resurgence of his career. In 2008, after a two-year period that saw him play in just one NFL game, Williams won 819 multifunctional yards while helping the Dolphins win AFC East. A year later, at 32, Williams ran for more than 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns, his best season since his abrupt retirement five years earlier. Williams enjoyed another productive season in Miami before helping Baltimore reach a Super Bowl game in 2011. Instead of trying to take the last chance in a ring, Williams decided to retire.
Although injuries, a suspension and his brief retirement affected his career statistics, Williams was still able to retire with more than 10,000 race yards in his career, a milestone that only 30 other running backs have reached. Williams is also just one of three people (the other two are Tony Dorsett and DeAngelo Williams) running for more than 6,000 yards in college and in the NFL. Williams also overcame social anxiety that became more challenging after his infamous magazine cover photo with then-Saints coach Mike Ditka wearing a wedding dress. Although it was not funny at the time, Williams can laugh at the incident about two decades later.
“I was in a limo with Coach Ditka (after the photo shoot) returning to the training center,” recalled Williams. “He had a cigar in his hand and was like, ‘I don’t know what they did to get you to put on that wedding dress, but I never would have done that.’ I was thinking to myself, ‘Why are you telling me this now? Why didn’t you tell me that before the photo shoot? ‘ … I am just now, perhaps in the last five years, really starting to experience this. I can look at it now and laugh and say it was funny. ”