Dolphins Didn't want Ricky?

Commentary: Dolphins bosses didn't want Ricky anyway

By Greg Stoda

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 11, 2007

The Dolphins have no comment.

Oh, sure, they do.

They're done with Ricky Williams, and have been done with him for quite some time. That's their comment, and they've been saying it by saying next to nothing about Williams whenever his name has been mentioned in recent months.

The Dolphins don't need to comment officially now that Williams yet again has failed them and himself by failing another drug test. They've been distancing themselves from Williams, who tested positive for marijuana last month, ever since Cam Cameron became their new head coach.

"He hasn't been reinstated," Cameron recently said when Williams was introduced as a topic of discussion. "You serve the organization, you serve yourself, best when you deal with things you can control."

Williams has demonstrated time and again an inability to control himself. He's unreliable, and reliability is a byword with Cameron.

Oh, hey, Cameron could have seen his way clear to use Williams in trade for whatever low-round draft choice some sucker bidder might have been willing to give him. In fact, such a scenario still could play out with Williams eligible for reinstatement come September.

Never, though, was Williams going to wear a Miami uniform with Cameron in charge. Nick Saban, he isn't.

You remember Saban, who always said it was "easy" to stand up for Williams, who constantly seems to end up making his enablers look foolish. Which, after all, is how those sad relationships frequently work out.

Williams was a terrific running back for the Dolphins in 2002 and 2003, when he rushed for a combined 3,225 yards after being acquired in trade from New Orleans. (Current Dolphins General Manager Randy Mueller signed off on the deal from the Saints' side, by the way.) Williams then sat out the 2004 season when he quit on the Dolphins in what turned out to be a fake retirement.

This was Mueller, writing for ESPN.com, on Williams at the time: " ... It's exactly this type of out-of-the-blue thinking that factored into our decision to trade him ... with Ricky, you just never knew what was coming next."

Nevertheless, Saban — upon taking the Miami coaching job before the 2005 season — offered Williams safe haven. Williams accepted the offer to return to the NFL, and sat out the first four games of the season while serving a penalty for what at the time was his third violation of the NFL's substance-abuse policy.

This was Mueller — before being hired by the Dolphins in June 2005 — on Miami's reacceptance of Williams:

" ...(We) had seen enough of Ricky on and off the field to know we could not put all our eggs into that basket."

Williams, though, was a Miami asset in 2005 by rushing for 743 yards and easing then-rookie running back Ronnie Brown's offensive burden.

But then came another Williams suspension for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy, and he was absent for the 2006 season.

Never did Mueller have Saban's ear as he now has Cameron's. That makes a significant difference when it comes to matters regarding Williams, who recently told ESPN: "I don't concern myself so much with earning trust."

Williams comes with a warning label, and always has. It's just that the Dolphins are paying attention to it these days. Anyone who trusts Williams at this stage of the madness is asking for the kind of trouble his kind of dependancy typically generates.

The only sure thing about Williams is that he's sure to turn into a disruptive figure. He suffers from social anxiety disorder, but the disorder becomes contagious. He owes the Dolphins a load of money they'll likely never get, but the franchise need not compound the financial loss by exposing itself to more of the psychological, emotional and strategic risks Williams poses.

Williams could, and probably will, market himself as a rejuvenated running back with low mileage the past three seasons. He played for Toronto in the Canadian Football League last year, carried 109 times for 526 yards and missed two months with a broken arm. He'll be 30 years old in little more than a week, and Miami is thin at running back behind Brown.

But the Dolphins don't need the aggravation that is Williams.

That's their comment.

Mixed Review for Ricky

Reactions mixed to Ricky positive test

'He doesn't care about football. He doesn't care about the Dolphins. For you to get upset at this point is stupid,' 790 The Ticket host Sid Rosenberg said to a fan.

By MANNY NAVARRO

mnavarro@MiamiHerald.com

Ricky Williams' career with the Dolphins appears to have ended Friday. And, it appears, so too has the desire from fans and radio hosts to see the 30-year-old former Pro Bowl running back play for the team anymore.

On sports radio call-in shows in South Florida, fans voiced their opinions about Williams and the news Friday he had tested positive for marijuana a fifth time, likely ending his tumultuous tenure with the team.

The feelings varied from anger to apathy to sympathy. But the general consensus was it is time for the Dolphins to move on.

''He doesn't care about football. He doesn't care about the Dolphins. For you to get upset at this point is stupid,'' 790 The Ticket host Sid Rosenberg told a caller Friday afternoon.

'I spoke for two hours about Ricky Williams and didn't get a single phone call. It's not a story for me. It's not surprising to me. Ricky Williams made it known a long time ago, football and the Dolphins were not important to him. It's almost like `OK, move on and let the Dolphins do what they have to do.' ''

Though a few fans expressed genuine surprise Williams tested positive, many sounded as though they've grown accustomed to being disappointed by Williams.

''I'm surprised, but I really shouldn't be,'' said Abel Rodriguez, 30, a former Dolphins season-ticket holder who was wearing a jersey of Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown while shopping in Hialeah's Westland Mall on Friday. ``He's just a moron. I quit caring about him the last time he messed up. I'm really done now.''

Rosenberg had several guests on his show Friday, including former NFL stars and University of Miami players Michael Irvin and Bernie Kosar. Irvin felt sorry for Williams.

''I think it's sad,'' he said. ``I heard it on the radio. I know Ricky wants to play football and it's a sad situation. I'm praying for him, and I hope it works out for him.''

Kosar said Williams has to have learned his lesson by now.

''There's a time and a place for things,'' Kosar said, ``and while you're under contract and under scrutiny, that's not the time.''

On The Jim Mandich show on WQAM, fill-in host Steve Goldstein spent most of the day talking about the NBA.

Most callers were not interested in Williams.

Goldstein said on the air: `Ricky Williams, Mr. Yoga, good riddance.''

Ricky Still likes The Marijuana

Source: Dolphins' Williams tests positive for pot

05/11/2007 8:02 AM - Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams tested positive for marijuana in April and will not be allowed to apply for reinstatement to the NFL until September, sources told ESPN's Chris Mortensen.

Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams tested positive for marijuana in April and will not be allowed to apply for reinstatement to the NFL until September, sources told ESPN's Chris Mortensen.

Williams

Williams was suspended last year for violation of the substance abuse policy and was eligible to be reinstated this month, but the league's medical advisors that oversee Williams' personal rehabilitation program recently notified commissioner Roger Goodell of the positive test, sources said.

The doctors also recommended that Williams not be allowed to apply for reinstatement until September, sources said. The commissioner usually adheres to the advice of the medical advisors under the substance abuse policy.

"Falling off the wagon is part of rehab," a source said. "Based on the medical evidence in Ricky's case, the doctors say it's too early to come back. He had the positive test last month. Remember, he's been diagnosed with social anxiety disorder -- that's a real disease and a good percentage of those folks self-medicate with substances like marijuana, often at the moment they are about to have a high level of social interaction."

League spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL would have no comment, as did Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene.

David Cornwell, an attorney who has represented Williams during his substance abuse cases, said he would honor the confidentiality policies in effect with another no comment.

Chris Mortensen covers the NFL for ESPN.

Keep Them?

Digg it del.icio.us

Ricky, Daunte have earned the opportunity to prove their worth

By Greg Cote

gcote@MiamiHerald.com

Joe Rimkus Jr. / Miami Herald Staff

Dolphins quarterback Daunte Culpepper, left, and running back Ricky Williams have had All-Pro performances during their careers.

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  We are here today to speak up on behalf of the downtrodden and the forgotten. We raise a plaintive, imploring voice for those who have overcome great pain but yet are made to suffer still. For those who have wronged and paid their debt and yet watch as society turns its back.

Well, OK, maybe not society. But Cam Cameron, anyway.

Give Daunte Culpepper and Ricky Williams a chance, Dolphins!

Not since we gave peace a chance back in the late '60s has a chance made as much sense or been as worthy of a supporting picket sign.

Miami's new NFL bossdom seems ready to part ways with Culpepper and Williams before giving either talented star an opportunity to prove himself all over again and help an offense that needs it -- and if this were even an inch more outrageous, we could expect Al Sharpton stampeding the team's Davie headquarters with a bullhorn.

This stretches the accepted logic that new head coaches tend to cleanse the organization of guys associated with prior regimes, let alone one as fetid as Nick Saban's. It is understandable. It is why you dump the ilk of Manny Wright and Marcus Vick, who had offered no hint they might be special and therefore earned no benefit of doubt.

You don't lump Culpepper and Williams in with that crowd, though. These are two proven, productive weapons when healthy and unsuspended, which both seem close to finally being. These also are two men in their chronological football prime, the quarterback having just turned 30 and the running back doing so in 11 days.

Here is a club coming off five consecutive nonplayoff seasons wrought with so-so offense. Even if the draft proves fruitful -- receiver Ted Ginn adding immediate spark and quarterback John Beck as an eventual real deal -- you would still need to admit Culpepper and Williams might be mighty useful in 2007.

PASSING TESTS?

The obvious prerequisites are that Culpepper's knee is sound by summer (he seems optimistic) and that his mental grasp of the offense becomes sufficient, and that Williams is reinstated by the NFL (he seems sure to be soon) after being tested roughly once every eight seconds to make certain he and Mary Jane are divorced for good.

If you have those assurances, why on earth would you not give these two a chance to contribute?

Culpepper's last fully healthy season, in 2004, he passed for 4,717 yards with 39 touchdowns against only 11 interceptions, with almost 70 percent accuracy. Those are MVP-type numbers. Yeah, he had Randy Moss then. And now he would have Ginn and Chris Chambers.

Are you that sure Culpepper can't be that quarterback again to not even take a long, fair look in training camp?

When you figure that Beck is a year away and comes with no guarantee? And when your presumptive alternative, in Kansas City's Trent Green, is a turning-37-year-old guy coming off a concussion-interrupted year?

Green, if you get him, could be a serviceable stopgap, a Gus Frerotte.

Culpepper, if you let him, could again be the Pro Bowl guy who Dolfans were so rightly enthused to have before Saban rushed him back last year and made things worse.

Let the better man win in training camp. That's what training camps are for.

IT COULD WORK

Williams? Ronnie Brown and Ricky would give Miami a bona fide 1-2 punch to reprise a tandem situation that has worked well before.

In Williams' last uninterrupted season (2003), he rushed for 1,372 yards, caught 50 passes and had 10 touchdowns. Draftee Lorenzo Booker is an NFL maybe. Williams is proven.

Despite the apparent logic in giving Culpepper and Williams a chance, it has been reported Miami will trade or release Culpepper when the seemingly forever-imminent Green deal happens. Cameron has said nothing publicly to make anyone think otherwise, nor has his noncommittal, persona non grata attitude on Williams fashioned anything close to a welcome mat there, either.

Culpepper can't be blamed for saying recently he would like a decision by the Dolphins ''sooner than later.'' You can only imagine the frustration of a star-caliber quarterback toughing back from major knee surgery to learn the payback for his perseverance is to see his job handed to aging Green.

As summer draws nearer, it seems the imperative grows for the new Dolphins leadership to do one of two things:

Either welcome Culpepper and Williams back for an honest opportunity to be the offensive producers we have seen them be.

Or kindly let us know why neither deserved the chance.