That's right. Football isn't a contact sport.
It's a collision sport.
$710.96... The price of freedom.
Posted on 07/26/2004 4:52:26 AM PDT by tdadams
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.
There's no question it's his career, his body, his decision to make.
But it's a low-class move to make it at this point in the season.
Any idea what his career earnings were?
Year Team Base Salary Sign Bonus Other Bonus Total Salary Cap Value Position 2003 Dolphins $ 2,630,000 $ 0 $ 3,500 $ 2,633,500 $ 2,633,500 RB 2002 Dolphins $ 450,000 $ 0 $ 3,870 $ 453,870 $ 453,870 RB 2001 Saints $ 389,000 $ 0 $ 0 $ 2,190,759 $ 2,190,759 RB 2000 Saints $ 275,000 $ 1,263,400 $ 51,100 $ 1,589,500 $ 1,842,200 RBThe formats a little funky, but it'll give you the info. He didn't make the killing he should have for the numbers he had.
I also agree with Ricky's decision. I'm an Oakland fan from way back, and I remember Jim Otto, who was center for 14 years. When inducted into the Hall of Fame, his knees were so bad that he had to be helped onto the podium for his acceptance speech. Is the money worth it?
That's right. Football isn't a contact sport.
It's a collision sport.
$710.96... The price of freedom.
With the money a lot of the a-list players in the NFL make today, many of them probably do think it's worth it. Knees can be replaced for about $50,000.
But 20 or 30 years ago, the players didn't make nearly as much. Joe Namath signed with the NY Jets for an "unheard of" amount of $400,000 in 1965.
That's because he had some rap artist (Master P?) negotiate his original contract with the Saints. Was one of the worst contracts ever. He totally got screwed. The Dolphins then voluntarilly tore it up and gave him a new one. And this is how he repays them.
Umm...news for you: Ricky already is a walking medicine cabinet.
And he suffers from a mental issue that requires treatment, causing unreasonable, irrational fear (some call it "shyness"). He had this at Texas, too.
It's too bad. Whether he plays football or takes photos of butterfly's in Japan, he will have these things haunting him, and he wont' be able to run from it, only mask it with drugs - like he is doing.
Ditka didn't help him, either. Ditka destroyed several NFL prospects while coaching. Players he had would have been great if he had not gotten hold of them. He'd make a great Pro Scout of Players Agent.
The trouble with this analysis is that Sanders tried best he could to get the Lions to release the rights to him so he could play somewhere else. The Lions refused and played hardball because, like Williams, Barry "retired" just days before training camp and left the Lions in the lurch. Thus, it appears it wasn't that Sanders didn't want to play football any more, he just didn't want to play football for the Lions anymore.
100% correct.
I think I could comfortably retire on $7M. Or at least find something less body-breaking to make some money at.
Williams was a high first round draft pick who signed a contract usually offered to an undrafted practice squad member.
One thing that this article glosses over is his responsibility to the team (or at least his teammates), even in retiring.
After taxes, $3.5 million.
Well, he won't have to worry about urinating in a cup any longer.
The timing is suspicious.....it's all Bushes fault!
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