
Originally Posted by
NoobJuice
Ricky did the right thing.
That's not what any Miami Dolphins fan wants to hear, but it's the truth. Unlike a lot of other athletes, Ricky Williams is leaving on his own terms, while he still has his health, while he still has a chance to do something else productive with his life.
Many pro football players become walking medicine cabinets when they retire. A good portion of them wind up with chronic back and neck pain.
Some have a permanent limp.
Some have limited use of their extremities. Almost all deal with considerable pain on a daily basis.
Sure, they make good money, but oftentimes the price they have to pay is even greater.
To most of us, the pounding an NFL running back takes is incomprehensible. As Emmitt Smith once said, playing in a pro football game is like being in 30 to 40 car accidents.
Yet Smith keeps toiling away, padding his NFL career rushing record with the lowly Arizona Cardinals, who basically signed the former Florida Gator as a PR move after he was cut by Dallas.
Emmitt's dedication and passion for the game might be unparalleled, but should he be applauded for continuing to grind it out so far beyond his prime?
Or should we praise the decisions of Barry Sanders, Robert Smith and now Williams, who have gotten out when the getting is good?
Sanders played for 10 years and rushed for more than 15,000 yards. He was well on his way to becoming the all-time leading rusher, then retired after the 1998 season.
People thought Sanders had lost his mind. Surely, they said, he would come to his senses and play again, maybe after sitting out for a year.
But Sanders, who was 30 years old at the time, knew when to say when, just as Smith did, when he retired from the Vikings at age 28 after the 1999 season. The legendary Jim Brown was just 29 when he called it quits after leading the league in rushing for eight of his nine seasons.
And the guess here is that Williams — who played just half as long as Sanders — won't be changing his mind either.
Everybody should have the right to move on to a new phase of their lives, whether you're a pro athlete, rock star, company executive or bus driver.
Sometimes it's not always a popular decision with fans, coaches, bosses or co-workers, but that's life. Freedom of choice is what this country was built on.
From the Dolphins' perspective, Ricky's timing could have been better. The team is just days away from the start of training camp and it has no idea who will carry the ball this season.
But don't blame Ricky for that.
He didn't want to leave his coaches and teammates in the lurch, but he knew it wouldn't be fair — to them or himself — to continue playing half-heartedly.
So in the end, it wasn't a real tough call to make.
And Ricky made the right decision.