Run Ricky Run: Ricky Williams Retires

[TACKLE]

At one point, he was one of the most dominant players in the league and probably one of my favorite players to ever play the game. Ricky is one of the most interesting and intriguing personalities in any sport and one of the most captivating athlete's ever imo. He will be missed.





A blog entry from his website written today.

Success is a Limitation? – Installment #0002
•February 7, 2012 • 1 Comment

People tend to assume there are limits to what they can contribute to the world. When we are young, we start off with dreams of grandeur about what we want to be when we grow up. The way I see it, our dreams, like everything else in this reality, are composed of two things: essence and matter, similar to the idea of soul and body.

As kids, our dreams are limited only by the matter or material from which they are made, represented by our environment. We are at the mercy of and what our environment thinks is possible and whether or not the environment can or will nurture our dreams.

I was very fortunate to have a mother who always taught me that I could be anything I wanted to be. However, from an environmental standpoint, I was at the disadvantage of being a minority of low socio-economic status. When I looked around my world, I took the essence/soul of my dream and the only form or material I could find to contain it was as an athlete or entertainer. Those were my choices as I saw them, based on my environment. That was the high end of what was possible from what I saw around me. I did not feel I had access to much more.

One of the main motivations for reigniting my foundation was that I came into the realization that all of my issues as a football player, and in life in general, began after I reached the top of the mountain. What else was there? No matter what I did after winning the Heisman Trophy, I always ended up feeling limited. I was able to achieve so much success so easily that I had no motivation to simply keep mastering the same thing over and over again. In this type of reality, a person must constantly put himself down in order to motivate himself to get up again. It was not enough to take on the regular challenges as they came, instead extra effort must be made to create even more, even tougher challenges and obstacles. Being in that reality is a vicious cycle that did nothing but make me realize how futile and counter-productive that kind of success could be.

I knew I could be the best football player — I had a trophy as proof, right? — so I sought ways to challenge myself differently. I started to see how much abuse my body could take a without having to do what I saw everyone else doing to recover. I became interested in how amazing our bodies are and how, if we take care of them, they will take care of us.

As a result, I take a lot less pain medication than most football players and eat much less, too. Combining that with six years of intensive study of various spiritual, mind-body and energy-healing modalities gives me an extremely unique perspective on ways to generate, create and institute innovative strategies that will benefit not only athletes of all types but can also provide possible remedies to the healthcare crisis we are experiencing in our country today. When I allow myself to meditate on the limitless possibilities, I come into the expansiveness of being able to provide a greater contribution than I ever thought possible.

My world can be so much larger than that football and its sidelines that confine. To me, that is what the Ricky Williams Foundation is all about. We all have limitations. Whether that limitation is poverty or success, I aim to help people reach beyond the fiction that is their perceived limits. Today I am asking you to assist me and the Ricky Williams Foundation change children’s future from limited to limitless, please make a donation today at www.RickyWilliamsFoundation.com.

Namaste and yours in limitless dreams,

~ Ricky Williams

[Fdmstng99]

Will miss Ricky, probably one of the best college RB.

[DiG]

Hands down one of my favorite football players to have watched and followed over the years. Hope the next chapter is successful for him.

[Rosebud]

This is a sad day, I always kinda hoped Ricky Williams would jsut always stay 31 and just keep being surprisingly effective until I got sick of football.

[zachsaints52]

Ol Ricky. See ya in Amsterdam.

[A Perfect Score]

One of the most fascinating stories to
Follow since I started watching the NFL. I actually got to
Meet Ricky Williams when he was with the Argos, he spent an afternoon with my high school football team. Very interesting man. Supremely quiet, very little to say. He's an interesting case of a player being as good as he wants to be, because when he was motivated he was as dominant a RB as I've seen in the 13 years I've been doing this thing. Sad to see him go, I will wear my alternate orange Ricky Williams phins jersey with pride.

[brat316]

I didn't get to see enough of ricky.

[DraftSavant]

My favorite player ever, and not just for the shallow weed connection.

He was a man who played football, not a football player. Best way I can describe him.

One of the main motivations for reigniting my foundation was that I came into the realization that all of my issues as a football player, and in life in general, began after I reached the top of the mountain. What else was there? No matter what I did after winning the Heisman Trophy, I always ended up feeling limited. I was able to achieve so much success so easily that I had no motivation to simply keep mastering the same thing over and over again. In this type of reality, a person must constantly put himself down in order to motivate himself to get up again. It was not enough to take on the regular challenges as they came, instead extra effort must be made to create even more, even tougher challenges and obstacles. Being in that reality is a vicious cycle that did nothing but make me realize how futile and counter-productive that kind of success could be.

This is, in essence, Ricky Williams.

[Grizzlegom]

I hated Ricky for that retirement thing but I've come to forgive him since then. He will be missed on the gridiron

[Nalej]

Outside of B.Sanders, I could argue he's the best back I've ever had the privileged to watch play.
Up there are T.Davis, M.Faulk, AD and LT. I have no issue with anyone claiming he was better either.
Such an amazing talent. Put football #1 on his priority list (instead of being # 49458594), he's in the HOF (and the mid career retirement doesn't happen)

As a Pats fan, I hated seeing him face us but at the same time looked forward to watching such an amazing football player.

You'll be missed, Ricky.

[DraftSavant]

[A Perfect Score]

I'm going to go put on my Ricky Williams jersey RIGHT NOW! That highlight video is just sick.

The vision on the run at 1:00 just makes me cringe thinking of how frustrated those defensive players were.

[Nalej]

A lot of NE in that highlight lol

[molenguinurtle]

One of the realest to ever do it. So much respect for this man.

[CashmoneyDrew]

Arian Foster now takes the mantle of being the top philosopher in the league.

[Vox Populi]

One of the best football plays I've seen was of Ricky against the Pats the year he ran for 1800, he had like 8 guys on his back and was just carrying them all on him running with his hands on the ground like a gorilla and the refs called him down about 15 yards before they should have. Dude was a beast. Its crazy how high he ranks in career numbers despite not giving a **** for most of his career and pretty much doing everything on his terms.

[OzTitan]

The sole thing Ricky lacked to become an all-time top 5 great at the position is a dedication to the sport and a view point on his existence "narrowed" enough to allow that. He seems cursed with the unfulfilled feeling of a greater purpose than sport, which I can't criticize him for.

[Crazy_Chris]

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So you're spamming about jade jewelry on a predominantly male football site... Yea thats exactly just what all of us need. Lol

[Ness]

This is the runner that Marino needed.

[CJSchneider]

She must have heard about football while slaving away in the kitchen.

[TACKLE]

Originally Posted by CJSchneider

She must have heard about football while slaving away in the kitchen.

That kitchen joke was WAY funnier this time.

[J-Mike88]

Originally Posted by Ness

This is the runner that Marino needed.

God can you imagine?
Still, Marino needed a defense too.

[The Alex]

Ricky is why I wanted the Ravens to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. I really wanted that broest of bros to get a ring. Thanks a lot Cundiff.

[JHL6719]

Marino didn't need a running game. He needed something resembling a defense that would hold Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and Andre Reed to under 35 PPG in the playoffs.