Now that's its been officially announced lets get into it. Ricky Williams or as some may call him "Sticky Ricky" is retiring from the game of football. He is 1 of 26 men to have rushed for over 10,000 yards in a career. Of those 26 people 13 are in the hall. With a few no doubters also on the list like Ladanian Tomlinson, Jerome Bettie, and Edgerrin James. And yes James will be there. He totalled over 12,000 yards in his career and everyone with that many yards has been enshrined with exception to Bettis who's just waiting for eligibility as well.
Some people would say Ricky's actions during his first stint at supposed retirement would definitely take him out of the running for a bid in Canton. I say the opposite. After leaving the game to basically become a hippie that offseason, he took responsibility for his action's. He returned to the Dolphin's and actually contributed to the team. When first returning the Dolphin's were trying to go a different direction with there backs. A youngsters and then very productive Ronnie Brown needed touches. And because of the lack of consistent QB play they employed the wildcat offense. Both Williams and Brown benefited from this. More Brown than Williams. In 2006 Brown actually rushed over 1000 yards. Really other than that Williams has always out played Brown.
After sharing time with Brown for a season and a quarter or so Ricky got the touches needed to be Ricky. He averaged 4.1 a rush for his career so when he gets touches he takes care of business. In all honesty him leaving the Dolphins should have seen what they missed. Not saying he's there saviour but I am saying regardless of his off field antics he's the best RB in the history of their team.
If not for the fact that he actually takes a break from the game he does make the hall dirty tests and all on stats alone. Now what most people fail to understand is that he did fail a test given by the league or his team. And after that he failed another and instead of actually facing the penalties he decided to not play. If he plays the whole season in 05 he gets at least another 1000 yards maybe more. That's putting him really close to that 12,000 yard mark I spoke of earlier. If the Dolphins don't make the mistake of not giving him his role back because of trust issues he gets those yards as well. While playing on Baltimore Williams knew he wasn't going to be that guy. He wanted to win and Miami wasn't really trying to.
I'm not saying Williams doesn't hold any responsibility in the fact that his stats aren't where they could or the fact that we actually have to discuss it now. But the fact that he's not chasing it and staying around is saying a lot. He knows that there's a chance he could get in if he keeps at it. And still decided to leave the game to pursue something he feels is more important.
Of I had to make a comparison it would be to Jim Brown. I know he did more in less time. But after looking at the amount of time Ricky got to play and what he was dealt after his fiasco in Miami its easy to see that Williams was an elite talent. And after giving them his all it got him no where. It may take some time to let things settle but Williams should make it in.
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