The Tale of Sticky Ricky

I saw on the ESPN bottom line this morning that Colt McCoy is vying to become only the 3rd Texas player to win the Heisman trophy. The other two were Earl Campbell in 1977 and Ricky Williams in 1998. And this is going to sound weird, but I forgot Ricky Williams ever went to college. He’s been such an odd figure in the sports world, it’s strange to think that he actually came from somewhere. Let’s go over the odd career of Sticky Ricky:

• In 1998, as a senior at Texas, Ricky broke Tony Dorsett’s record and became the all time leading rusher in NCAA Division 1-A football. Dorsett’s record had stood for 22 years.
• The next year, Ricky had his record broken by Ron Dayne of Wisconsin. Ricky’s record stood for less than a year.
• In December 1998, Ricky won the Heisman. And this is where things take a turn for the weird.
• In the 1999 NFL Draft, Mike Ditka, then head coach of the Saints, trades his entire 1999 draft away, plus a 1st and 3rd round pick for 2000, all to trade up for Ricky Williams. The Saints went 3-13 in Ricky’s first season. Might have been a bad move by Iron Mike.
• After the draft, Ricky signs Master P as his agent. Yes, Master P, the ‘rapper’, as a sports agent. “No Limit Sports” negotiated a ridiculous contract for Ricky, making the whole thing based on almost unreachable incentives. Ricky fired Master P a year later, and hired an actual sports agent.
• Prior to his rookie season, Ricky and Coach Ditka posed on the cover of ESPN the Magazine as a bride and groom. And, the word ‘disturbing’ takes on a new meaning.
• Ricky gains national attention for some rather bizarre behavior while playing for the Saints, including giving post game interviews with his helmet still on. With a visor on the helmet so nobody could see his eyes. Ricky was later diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. No kidding.
• After 3 years with the Saints, Ricky is traded to the Miami Dolphins.
• In his first season with the Dolphins, Ricky led the NFL in rushing and made the pro-bowl.
• Then in May of 2004, Ricky was suspended from the NFL for 4 games for testing positive for marijuana. Instead of serving his suspension, he decided to retire from the NFL. He played for 5 seasons.
• After retiring from football, Ricky decided he wanted to be a holistic healer, and began studying the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda. He actually went to a school for this. Which means there’s actually a school for this. Who knew?
• A few months later in February 2005, while Ricky was in a hut somewhere in Thailand, a Florida judge ruled that he had to pay the Dolphins $8.6 million of his signing bonus.
• A few months after that, and completely unrelated to his sudden money troubles, Ricky had a ‘change of heart’ and decided he wanted to come back to the NFL. If only this were the end of the Ricky Williams saga.
• After playing another year for the Dolphins, Ricky failed yet another drug test (his fourth), and in April 2006 he was suspended for the entire season.
• With Ricky unable to play in the NFL for a year, the Canadian Football League endured a little controversy by allowing Ricky to sign with the Toronto Argonauts for the 2006 season.
• I guess the Ricky experiment didn’t go too well, because after the season, the CFL enacted the “Ricky Williams Rule”, which prevents any CFL team from signing a player serving a suspension from the NFL.
• And finally, Ricky served his one year suspension from the NFL, and is now back playing with the Dolphins. He was hurt for most of 2007, but has been playing fairly well this year.

Even though I’ve followed all these different events as they happened, and fully recognized each time how bizarre of a dude Ricky Williams was, I guess I didn’t appreciate the whole story until this morning. Tomorrow, it will be exactly 10 years since Ricky Williams won the Heisman trophy, and man has it been a fascinating ten years. I don’t think Colt McCoy is going to win the award this weekend. But, if he does, let’s hope his post-Heisman decade goes a little smoother than it did for the last Longhorn to win it.

On a scale of one to Gus Johnson, I give this a Joe Theismann.