Ricky Williams
Ricky Williams
Errick Lynne "Ricky" Williams Jr.is a retired American football running back who played twelve seasons in the National Football Leagueand one season in the Canadian Football League. He played college football for the University of Texas, where he was a two-time All-American and won the Heisman Trophy. Williams was drafted by the New Orleans Saints fifth overall in the 1999 NFL Draft and spent three seasons with the team before he was traded to the Miami Dolphins in 2002. He...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth21 May 1977
CitySan Diego, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I have no room in my life for any form of negativity or nonacceptance.
When you make that crossover from life to real life, when you're not treated as a child anymore but as a man, and you are no longer given the benefit of the doubt, it takes some courage to face that.
I'm closer to being happy. I'm doing things that make me happy. In football I loved to practice and I loved to play, but I hated to be in meetings, hated to talk to the media, hated to have cameras in my face, hated to sign autographs. I hated to do all those things.
Anytime you play a team sport, the success of the team really makes everything better. It's nice.
It's something that I had been pushing down my whole life. The search for meaning, I guess, the whispering of the soul.
I would drive home and see people wearing my No. 34 jersey and wonder why, because I didn't feel worthy of that. And all the time I just knew people were staring at me, talking about me everywhere I went.
I realized a while back that I have an innate ability to be compassionate, and I saw that the strength of compassion is something that healers have and healers use.'
As an athlete, you figure you work your whole life to have what you have, and to be able to show the world what you have and how proud you are of it, that's always fun.
I think if I were a college professor, no one would say I was uncomfortable about being shy because that might be expected. But I think because of people's stereotypes, they think of a football player as someone who is very outgoing and I'm not.
I allowed myself to think if I could be doing anything in the world, what would I be doing? And what came to mind is I'd be traveling a little bit, I'd be going to classes and I'd be going back to school.
Well, I don't think I've necessarily ever been a passionate football player or a passionate person.
The people that I see on the street, they treat me more as a human being and not just an icon or a football player.
Now that I have conquered social anxiety disorder, I find pleasure in fans approaching me.
I stepped away to find out more about myself, which I was having difficulty doing as a football player. I got a chance to travel the world. I studied Eastern philosophy, and I've grown as a person so much.