One of a kind

For the many who preceded him and the many who will follow, there will never be a professional football player quite like Ricky Williams.

Williams, who announced his retirement this week following a pro career that began in 1999, was an extreme rarity. The game of football seemed to want him more than he wanted the game.

In 2004, after testing positive for marijuana, his third violation of the National Football League drug policy, the running back with the dreadlocks left from the game rather than serving a four-game suspension.

So Williams, playing for the Miami Dolphins at the time, retired from the NFL, his multi-million contract and a $650,000 fine and fled to other countries to discover the meaning of life and his purpose. He was found by chance in a tent in Australia, of all places, totally content. He could smoke the sweet-smelling herb all he wanted and it didn't matter. He was just another guy in the Outback.

That's what made Williams so different, so compelling as an athlete, along with a myriad of other things, some of which he didn't control.

Coming out of the University of Texas, where he had completed a stellar four-year career that was capped off by winning the Heisman Trophy in 1998 as the best collegiate player in the U.S., Williams found himself the object of Mike Ditka's desire. In 1999, Ditka, then head coach of the New Orleans Saints and holding the hammer in football decisions, gave away all his draft picks - along with a first and third-round pick the next year - to the Washington Redskins to move up in the draft so he could be assured of selecting the running back fifth overall.

Ditka, who appeared wearing a dreadlocks wig the day after the draft when he and Williams appeared for a press conference, banked his future on the bruising back. Williams had such incredible talent that even a gruff old guy like Ditka fell into football's equivalent of puppy love. In the end, it didn't work. The Saints and Ditka were a bad mix. The guy who was the face of the Chicago Bears didn't go over in the Big Easy.

Beyond just his talent, which was obvious, Williams became an object of discussion and fanfare for his dreads and then the drugs. In truth, he used marijuana to help him deal with depression and a social anxiety disorder, which wasn't completely understood or even fully publicly known.

A few years later with the Miami Dolphins, who acquired him in a trade in 2002, Williams did an interview wearing his helmet and dark visor. It seemed odd, but in truth he was making a statement: if he was viewed as nothing more than a football player, he would look the part. While he wore the helmet and visor as a protective shield, it also served as a mask of sorts.

It was only through yoga and meditation in his time away from the game that Williams found serenity and peace, along with a purpose in life, whether or not it would be playing football full-time.

Williams returned for the 2005 NFL season, apologized to his teammates, some of whom were critical when he quit, and served his suspension. He also paid back a portion of the money the Dolphins paid him in a signing bonus. But in 2006 it was discovered he tested positive again for marijuana and this time the fourth offence earned him a one-year suspension.

The Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, which didn't have a rule at the time against signing players under suspension in the NFL or any other league, went to great lengths to sign him.

He was paid $250,000, making him the highest-paid running back in the league, although chump change for a guy used to making millions. His signing created international news -- never had there been a star NFL player coming to the CFL in the prime of his career while under suspension.

I had the opportunity to meet with Williams for an exclusive interview the night before he formally signed a contract with the Argos. It happened in one of the luxury suites at the SkyDome during a home baseball game for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Williams, who had shaved off his hair and beard because he'd been told to do so by his yoga instructor in India, spoke softly. It became almost inaudible because of the din of the fan noise. Shortly into our discussion, I decided to discuss existentialism figuring he might embrace a subject other than football. He took a napkin, and using a red marker he illustrated three lines, which represented the past, the present and the future, and said they were all connected. But he also believed in free will.

"I'm not going to say why I am here right now because I don't know," he began. "I can't even tell you that I made the choice to be here. I know it's hard for people to understand what that means, but the way I live my life is that I'm trying to eradicate likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes are what lead to confusion, anger, discontentment and I think when you can learn to accept whatever life gives you, then that's the only chance you really have to be truly happy in this life."

"I'm just a witness," he added. "Any time in life you think you can control things -- outside of how you feel or think -- then it's an illusion. The only thing I can control is the way I handle every situation that comes in front of me. If I handle it in a positive way, positive things will happen in the future. If I handle them negatively, negative things will happen in the future.

Things that happen now are a result of the past, so how you deal with those things is what's real. It's what you have control over."

Williams suffered a broken forearm early in the season that took him out of the lineup for two months and he never was able to live up to the hype. But, his teammates embraced him because he didn't ask for special treatment. He was not a big-shot NFL star on a one-year paid hiatus in the CFL and enjoyed the relative anonymity. It became a cultural journey.

Dick Pound, the sports anti-drug czar, took issue with Williams' presence in the CFL, which he said is a place "where (players) serve their jail time." After the season, the CFL changed its bylaws preventing its teams from signing players under suspension in any other league.

Unofficially it became known as the Ricky Williams rule.

Williams returned to the NFL in 2007 and played at a decent level. He signed a two-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens in 2011, and during the season he surpassed the 10,000-yard career rushing mark, only the 26th player to do so. But after the season, he decided to retire and move on with his life. Nearing the age of 35, he had given all he had to the game and left on his own terms.

"The NFL has been an amazing page in this chapter of my life," he told the Associated Press. "I pray that all successive adventures offer me the same potential for growth, success and most importantly fun."

That, in a nutshell, summed up the one -- and only -- Ricky Williams.

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on sportsnet.ca. He is also a regular contributor on other sports, including the UFC.