Athletes - Ricky Williams

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	Athletes - Ricky Williams

Ricky Williams (born Errick Lynne Williams, Jr. May 21, 1977) is an American football running back for the NFL's Miami Dolphins. Williams also played for the New Orleans Saints franchise. He is the 1998 Heisman Trophy trophy winner.

Biography

Personal life

Ricky Williams was born, along with his twin sister Cassandra, on May 21, 1977, in San Diego, California. Williams was born to relatively young parents, who ultimately separated when Williams was six years old. Although the mother was awarded custody of Ricky and his siblings, Williams still has a close bond with his father.

Williams excelled in school and was involved in his school's accelerated program. However, Williams and his twin sister were the victims of racist remarks from other students in the suburb. This resulted in accumulated anger, which Williams sometimes vented by bullying other kids.

In San Diego's Patrick Henry High School, Williams primarily played baseball and football, but also ran track and wrestled. On the football field, Ricky gained 2,099 yards and scored 25 touchdowns. He was named "Offensive Player of the Year" by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Ricky Williams has admitted being very shy and is diagnosed with social anxiety disorder which he struggled coping with during his football career. Williams was treated with therapy and medication. To alleviate his symptoms, he smoked marijuana during the NFL football season and was consequently penalized. Williams has stated he no longer suffers from social anxiety and endorses the drug Paxil for treatment. He is working with the drug company GlaxoSmithKline to educate the public about the disorder.

While not married, Williams has three children, as of 2006.

College career

A tremendous athlete, he was selected out of Patrick Henry High School in the 8th round of the 1995 baseball amateur draft by the Philadelphia Phillies, and played four years at the Class A level. He was then taken in the 1998 Rule V Draft by the Montreal Expos, who sold his rights to the Texas Rangers. He played college football for The University of Texas at Austin and was backed up by all-star Chiefs running back, Priest Holmes. Williams holds or shares 20 NCAA records, and became the NCAA career rushing leader in 1998 with 6,279 yards (broken one year later by University of Wisconsin's Ron Dayne). Williams won the 64th Heisman Trophy, becoming the second Texas Longhorn to win this honor, joining Earl Campbell.

Early professional career

New Orleans Saints head coach Mike Ditka traded all of his 1999 draft picks to get Williams, the first time one player was the only draft pick of an NFL team. Williams and Ditka posed for the cover of ESPN Magazine as a bride and a groom with the heading "For Better or for Worse." Rapper Master P's organization No Limit Sports negotiated his contract. Williams later made Leigh Steinberg his agent. Ditka was later fired for the team's poor performance, and Williams was traded after 3 seasons to the Miami Dolphins on March 8, 2002 for two first-round picks. In his first season with the Dolphins, he was the NFL's leading rusher and a Pro Bowler with 1,853 yards.

Williams was noted for his dreadlocks, but shaved them off during a solo trip to Australia. He also suffers from social anxiety disorder. The disorder makes Williams somewhat of an odd ball. "Ricky's just a different guy," Saints receiver Joe Horn explained. "People he wanted to deal with, he did. And people he wanted to have nothing to do with, he didn't. No one could understand that. I don't think guys in the locker room could grasp that he wanted to be to himself, you know, quiet. If you didn't understand him and didn't know what he was about, it always kept people in suspense." Besides keeping to himself, Williams was also known for conducting post-game interviews with his helmet on and avoiding eye contact.

Early retirement from football

It was announced on May 14, 2004 that he tested positive for marijuana in December 2003 and faced a $650,000 fine and a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy. He previously tested positive for marijuana shortly after he joined the Dolphins; shortly before training camp was to begin in July 2004, Williams publicly disclosed his intent to retire from professional football.

Rumored to have failed a third drug test before announcing his retirement, Williams made his retirement official on August 2, 2004, was ineligible to play for the 2004 season and studied Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of holistic medicine at the California College of Ayurveda that autumn.

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