By Arash Madani,
CFL.ca
The outrage makes sense. Ricky Williams has no business playing in the CFL because no other pro football player in our country has ever made a mistake.
Has ever sampled a drug.
Has ever changed his mind.
Has altered his perspective on life.
Has dabbled in something other than the game.
This is a league with sold out stadiums ever week, isn’t it?
Its depth of talent never gets recycled.
Once an import running back makes a roster, he’s there for a career.
Of course.
The criticism is valid. What business does a Pro Bowler with a Heisman Trophy on his mantle have coming to Toronto, to explode on a wide-open field and assault opponents with those pistons for legs? Why should the Argonauts have even entertained the thought of even putting Williams on their neg list? The guy ended the New Orleans Saints draft party before it really got started back in the spring of ’99, when Mike Ditka gave up the rest of his picks to get the best damn thing the state of Texas had seen since western movies – and then go golfing.
The nerve.
The audacity.
You can find guys like Ricky Williams anywhere, after all.
In his second year with the Saints – with an offensive line providing as much reliability as Andre Rison’s alimony cheques, with holes that would make swiss cheese look sturdy – New Orleans had themselves a 1,000 yard rusher.
In 10 games, don’t forget that part.
It’s not as if he re-wrote the Miami Dolphins record books either, for single season rushing yards or touchdowns.
Four straight years of at least a grand on the ground in the NFL, not to mention being the most incredible sight college football had seen in the state of Texas in a lifetime.
But so what?
Ricky liked – past tense, if you believe the most untrustworthy (agents) and the man you’d have faith in with your newborn (Pinball Clemons) – to puff on a little herb.
Stop the presses.
Close the borders.
Call immigration.
Deport the man immediately, let alone allow him to sign a contract.
How can we have a man play in the Canadian Football League who often dabbled in performance un-enhancing substances, and still be able to dominate? Why, Kent Austin may feel as if he is high when the Argos offensive coordinator takes two glances at Williams burst out of the backfield, dodge linebackers as if they are pilons and blow by defensive backs like the turnstiles at Rogers Centre.
Funny thing, too. Clemons, who guided his team to a Grey Cup in 2004, didn’t look at the sickening numbers or the film that made NFL defensive coordinators quiver.
“He articulated his desire is to serve others,” said Pinball. “It is Ricky Williams the man that is most impressive.”
This is a league with a history of model citizens.
Heck, the last time the Montreal Alouettes won the Grey Cup, choir boy Lawrence Phillips was the Als tailback in 2002.
You remember Lawrence, don’t you? That first round St. Louis pick, who then Rams head coach Dick Vermeil went to pick up from jail to drive to training camp? The sultry talent-laden back refused to block while in San Francisco, thus ending a hall-of-fame career for quarterback Steve Young, yet still came to the CFL. Arrived after a domestic violence charge, an arrest for smacking a woman in a nightclub and then went on to some DUI offences, not to mention be suspected for attempted murder and more (alleged) attacks on his girlfriend.
Ricky smoked a substance that lawmakers in our country may decriminalize before you finish reading Phillips’ rap sheet.
“I want to serve my community, my teammates, my coach and give back on a grand scale,” said Williams on Sunday. “There’s more to life than (football)… cars, houses, security. I have found the purpose of life and now I get to go deeper into it.”
Williams will electrify the Argonauts offence when the lights go on. But he will mean more to the Canadian Football League with the message he wants to convey.
“I’ll tell (the kids) if they make a mistake once, if they make a mistake twice, if they make the mistake three times, it’s still a mistake and I’ll still be there beside them to support them and help them to eventually get over making that same mistake,” said Williams. “I come with a peaceful mind and peaceful attitude.”
The fault in signing Williams was what, again?
Arash Madani is a sports anchor/reporter with A-Channel television in Ottawa
(The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Canadian Football League)
