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Ricky Williams: The Bitch Wants Back

Call it the '90-Day Retirement Remorse', call it whatever you want, but trying to decipher the mixed signals radiating from Ricky Williams this year is nothing short of a Googlean feat. Almost exactly 90-days from his retirement announcement, this is how his lawyer is spinning it today;

My assessment is he wants to play football," Cornwell said.

"My preference is that he was able to play last week."

At issue is whether Williams decided to retire as a result of learning he was facing a four-game suspension.

"I'm not going to go into the specifics of our rationale," Cornwell said. "We had a point of view; the NFL had a different point of view."

"Ricky made the decision to retire. Clearly, Ricky overreacted as things unfolded," Cornwell said. "But for that misunderstanding, he would not have retired. This was a human who had a particularly emotional reaction to a set of circumstances.

"I've seen hundreds of reports concerning what this was about. None of them are right. As far as I know, he never wanted to stop playing football. - Washington Post

This is what Ricky Williams was saying immediately following his retirement announcement less than three months ago;

I'm finally free," Williams said by cellphone from Hawaii. "I can't remember ever being this happy."

"I just don't want to be in this business anymore," said Williams, finished after just five NFL seasons. "I was never strong enough to not play football, but I'm strong enough now. I've considered everything about this. Everyone has thrown every possible scenario at me about why I shouldn't do this, but they're in denial. I'm happy with my decision.

This is not some whim. Williams has been weighing this with friends for months...This isn't about any money dispute or leverage or the recent headlines involving his marijuana use. It's about outgrowing games.

"The people in Jamaica, living in these little tin shacks, they were the happiest people I've ever seen," Williams said. "This is an opportunity to be a real role model. Everyone wants freedom. Human beings aren't supposed to be controlled and told what to do. They're supposed to be given direction and a path. Don't tell me what I can and can't do. Please."

Society and the NFL say he can't smoke marijuana, for example, and that's one of the many rules of his confining workplace he will no longer abide. He says without apology he has gotten around NFL drug tests with a special liquid players all over the league consume by the gallon before tests to avoid detection. He says he simply didn't drink it before getting busted in 2002, and that he still hasn't heard on his appeal of a second failed test, but that the recent marijuana issues have nothing to do with his decision to retire beyond confirming how stifling celebrity can be and how ill-fitting the NFL is for him. - Dan La Betard: Miami Herald

Ricky and his lawyers want the fans and the NFL to understand that the only reason he retired from the game is because of a 'disputed' positive drug test for marijuana.

How on Earth would marijuana find its way into Ricky's pee? Go figure?

I'm finally free [Herald.com] Lawyer: Williams retired over drug test [Washington Post] Photo: [ESPN]

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