April 27, 2010 -- 8:51 pm
Type in the name Ricky Williams on Google, and browse through the results. The first few are typical -- NFL.com player stats, a Yahoo! rumor or two about retirement, the list goes on.
But halfway down the page, you see it:
| 2nd most popular search in the past hour. | |||||
Google Trends, a service that tracks search queries, shows that Ricky Williams search level is "volcanic".
Type in Run Ricky Run, and you'll see that the new ESPN documentary series 30 for 30's airing of Run Ricky Run is the 13th most searched for topic in the hour following the airing of the episode
Here's why Ricky's story is different from the traditional star athletes: He left the game, in his prime, for SPIRITUAL reasons.
Williams is a different man; or should I say, a different NFL star. Ricky had trouble coping with NFL stardom, and after multiple suspensions (try 4) and an eventual year long ban from NFL football, many people had written off the talented Williams as a has-been who couldn't stay away from drugs.
It didn't help Ricky's image when he literally ran away from an $8.5 million dollar contract with the Miami Dolphins to an Australian camp site that charged a whopping $7 per night.
Williams was struggling because he didn't truly know himself -- a reason he often cited for the use of Marijuana (when he did admit to use of the drug). He said he was trying to "get inside myself, see who I really am".
But the media didn't want any part of that. All they wanted to do was run his name across the mud on the crawl at the bottom of the television screen and tell the world that he was a delinquent. A criminal. Someone who could not hold his life together when everything had been handed to him on a silver platter.
What most media outlets left out is what Sean Pamphilon and Royce Toni set out to deliver in Run Ricky Run: the truth about why Ricky Williams was struggling in life.
Williams never denies his less-than-honorable actions. He knows he still owes the Dolphins front office $8.5 million. He knows he was an absentee father and temperamental (at best) life partner to his current wife, Kristen. He understands that he ran away from his responsibilities as a teammate, a father, and a husband.
But he does have a healthy, positive side that the media never chose to show during his early, tumultuous stint in the NFL.
Upon returning from Australia, Williams became interested in holistic healing and natural medicine. His spiritual shift led him to be taken under the wing of Swami Sitaramananda, the director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm in Grass Valley, California. There, Ricky learned the healing power of yoga and has been given the honor of being 1 of the 4 instructors at the farm.
According to Run Ricky Run, when he does retire Williams wants to go to medical school and study to become a physician. Five years ago, Ricky's own mother defined his roll in his own kids lives as "absent". Now? She says "present" with a smile, a full 180-degree turn in only a small matter of time.
But where is the media now? Aside from a few cheers upon his return to the NFL in the 2008 season, they have completely forgotten his story.
Williams is different; he always has been, and he always will be. Jason Taylor, a former Dolphin teammate, said he was "the hardest working guy who complained the least" on the team. Those who have taken Williams' yoga courses say he's been extremely calm and insightful; a real treat to be around.
And what is lost in the whole Ricky Williams story is this: he ran away from everything so that he could come to know, understand, and ultimately love the man he had grown to be. Ricky has never been accused of assaulting a young woman in a nightclub. He never got high in the wee hours of the morning and ran over a man in his car. In fact, he's never been charged of any violent criminal activity.
Unfortunately for him, the media has charged and convicted Williams of being different.
Ricky simply walked away from the confusing, shades-of-gray world he had grown up in in the attempt to discover himself and the man he was supposed to be.
Does that really sound like a criminal to you?
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