Five Quick Hits
* My computer was down for most of June, and I somehow missed Bill Parcells' reference to "Jap plays," which most of us just call "trick plays" or "surprise plays". Classy. But invoking an attack in which many people died, and the era of racially-motivated hatred that followed it, strikes me as less than hilarious.
* Parcells also prefaced his remark with, "No offense to the Orientals." Aside from the outdated term for Asians, doesn't saying that indicate that Parcells realized he was probably going to offend some people? It's probably better to keep your funny joke to yourself in situations like that.
* I'll have a revised number when I do my preseason power rankings at the beginning of September, but for now, I see the Dolphins at 7-9 or so.
* I'm not sold on the Patriots.
* The Raiders cut Rod Woodson. If no one else signs him, we'll see Rod in Canton in five years.
When it comes to the Ricky Williams drama, talk is cheap. I'm ready for someone to tell me TBS is making a mini-series about the whole thing. Speculation, opinions, exaggerations, accusations ... the whole thing is being blown out of proportion.
It's been very popular this week to compare Williams' early retirement to those of Barry Sanders and Robert Smith. Sanders, on the eve of both training camp and Walter Payton's all-time rushing record, announced his retirement. Smith, coming off the best season of his successful, but injury-plagued career, retired after the 2000 season. I'd say the Smith comparison has more merit, for several reasons.
First of all, Sanders is a Hall of Famer. He made 10 All-Pro teams and 10 Pro Bowls in a 10-year career. He retired with the fourth-highest average per carry in NFL history, and second-highest marks in career rushing yards, single-season rushing yards, and single-season average per carry (min. 150 att.).
Smith and Williams made a combined two All-Pro teams and three Pro Bowls. You mention Sanders' early retirement in the same sentence as Jim Brown's. You mention Williams with Smith and Napoleon Kaufman.
Smith has expressed empathy for Williams this week, and the two seem to share many ideas about the importance or unimportance of playing professional football. "Football was what I did, but it was not who I was," Smith said. "I think [Williams] feels the same way." Sanders, in contrast, doesn't appear to view Williams as a kindred spirit. "I'm as surprised as anyone. Even for me, it seems very strange."
But I'm not interested in examining Ricky's motives for retiring, or in speculating on whether he'll be back. I'm in this for the football. That means brass tacks consist of two things: Williams' legacy, and the 2005 Dolphins. Let's start with Miami.
If Ricky Williams ever had a grudge against the Dolphins, he's paid it back. That's the one way in which a comparison to Sanders is valid: both he and Williams screwed their teams over by retiring shortly before an upcoming season. What Williams did was unfair to everyone in the Dolphins organization (including his presumed replacement, Travis Minor).
As a team with a mediocre passing game and a strong defense, it's natural for Miami to rely on a powerful running game, and Williams was supposed to be the core of that. As everyone has already pointed out, James Stewart and Stacey Mack are available, and I think it would be a mistake for the Dolphins not to sign one of them. Stewart is an underrated back who can probably be had for something near the veteran minimum since he missed all of last season with an injury. Mack is an effective situational runner who's strong between the tackles. Although signing Mack or Stewart should help, whatever they do, Miami's season is shot.
Not, however, because Williams was a dominating force. People have been writing that Williams may have thrown away a Hall of Fame career. And I guess that's possible, but it sure seems unlikely. He had one great season, very similar to Jamal Anderson's 1998 campaign. Williams had seven more rushing yards, 44 more receiving yards, one more TD, and two more fumbles than Anderson. Both led the league in carries, and it was the third 1000-yard season for both. Williams, in his other four seasons, was solid but unremarkable. Never averaged four yards a carry. Never ran for 10 TDs. Rushed for 14 yards on six carries in his only playoff game, a blowout loss.
Ricky appeared a little worn-down last year, with a combined 775 carries in his two seasons in Miami. That's an NFL record; no one else has ever had so many rushing attempts in consecutive years. He was still carrying the ball, still getting yards, but the energy he showed in 2002 was gone. His 3.5 average per carry tied the career-low he set as a rookie and was nearly a yard and a half worse than his 4.84 average the previous season.
Peter Schaffer, an agent whose clients include Sanders, says, "Everybody wants to group all of these running backs together -- Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Robert Smith, Ricky Williams -- but I think it's just coincidental that they all play the same position." Well, I don't. Running backs take the hardest beating of any players in the game. They get hit on almost every play, and usually by someone running at full speed. Their careers are, on average, the shortest of any position.
There is a laundry list of great running backs who were forced to retire early because of injury. In the last 25 years, you have Billy Sims, William Andrews, Earl Campbell, Bo Jackson, and Terrell Davis.
Great players -- especially RBs -- used to retire early all the time, and they weren't treated like headcases because of it. Hall of Famer Doak Walker played for only six seasons. Brown, with nine years experience and having never missed a game, retired after a season in which he was named league MVP. Deacon Dan Towler probably would have made the Hall of Fame if he hadn't quit football to join the ministry after only six seasons in the pros. Terry Metcalf, a Herschel Walker-type triple threat in the mid-'70s, retired after five productive seasons with the Cardinals before an aborted one-year comeback attempt with Washington four years later. The list goes on.
There's nothing wrong with leaving the game before your skills deteriorate so much that you're no good any more. And people are making it seem as though Williams has thrown away his life's pursuit. "He might have gone to the Hall of Fame!" If Peyton Manning or Richard Seymour retired tomorrow, you say that. If Williams hadn't been so exceptional in college, there would be much less fuss. Ricky Williams didn't walk away from his passion. He was just being Ricky Williams.
The shame of this all is the timing. If Williams had announced his decision in February, like Smith did, I wouldn't have a bad word to say about him. But that's the problem. Football wasn't his top priority, and now he's acting like it isn't anyone else's, either. That's the kind of attitude that caused Ricky himself so much trouble when he first entered the league: assuming that everyone is the same.
Now, we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Williams is different. Good for him. It's refreshing to see a professional athlete with other interests and priorities.
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