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'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.
I have no room in my life for any form of negativity or nonacceptance.
A team takes on the personality of the head coach.
Now that I have conquered social anxiety disorder, I find pleasure in fans approaching me.
It's something that I had been pushing down my whole life. The search for meaning, I guess, the whispering of the soul.
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.'
If you identify yourself as a great football player, anytime anyone challenges that, you're going to have some kind of problem.
I want to thank all my fans, teammates, coaches and supporters for the strength they've given me to overcome so much.
Well, I don't think I've necessarily ever been a passionate football player or a passionate person.
I've always been shy, but in New Orleans there were times my shyness would cause me actual physical pain. I'd get so claustrophobic around people that I'd bend over from the sickness in my stomach. That's not a good way to be when you're famous, obviously.
I had this notion that everyone was staring at me and judging everything about me, from my appearance to the way I talk and everything.
Coaches want so many things from a back. It's hard to find someone like Edgerrin James or Marshall Faulk, someone you can trust to block, catch and be physical. But I can do all those things.
I am more mature. I'm a better football player. I just feel like this is my time.
Football is my job, not my life, but it's a job I'm going to give my all for as long as I'm in it.