Ok, so Miami RB Ricky Williams has retired to go smoke dope. So what?

He was more hype than substance for most of his short career and kind of weird on top of that.

Was he good? Sure, he was good.

The problem is that he was JUST good. He had one really impressive year and that was it. He had early career injury problems, he had a huge fumbling problem, he only averaged more than 4.0 yds per carry one time, and had a monster sized drop in production -- regardless of how you measure it -- last season.

Ricky was not an elite back and was already in decline. The best that can be said for him was that he was a balanced back, he ran and received pretty well, but that was the extent of it.

In `02 he rushed for 1853 yds. In `03 it was 1372. He dropped almost 500 yds. That's a monster sized drop in production.

In `02 his average was 4.8 yds per carry. In `03 it was 3.5. That's a monster sized drop in production. That's tied for the worst in his career.

He dropped from 7.7 yds per catch to 7.0 yds. That's at least a significant drop off. The second lowest average of his career.

The only number that held steady was his fumbles. In `02 he dropped a total of 7 balls and lost 5 of them. In `03 he also dropped a total of 7 balls and lost 5 of those, too.

His drop off last year wasn't merely in one area, it was across the board. Why, when he was the center of the offense? Why didn't he excel in a single area when compared to the previous season? Why, if he is still such a stud, did EVERY area of his game drop off . . . except fumbles and fumbles lost?

Most of you have followed Miami's offseason. The offense is no longer centered on its RB. That's why they brought in headcase WR David Boston, hoping that having him opposite WR Chris Chambers would ease Ricky's burden. And he's worked hard to get back down to a manageable weight, so there is some good news there. However, all that only points to decreased opportunity for Ricky to carry the ball.

On the other hand,

Last year the system was centered on Ricky. The stage was his. He had every opportunity to break out and show the world that he was an elite back. Instead he fell drastically. Ricky is a player in decline. Carrying the ball almost 400 times per year the past two seasons, was beating him into early retirement. He just jumped ahead of the curve a little bit. He saw what happened to Earl Campbell and what is happening to Eddie George, he could feel what was happening to his own body. It scared the daylights out of him.

He certainly must have also taken notice of the problems Miami was going to have on offense (a rag tag O line, no consistency at QB), and understood that that could only mean he'd take a bigger beating this coming year, even with a reduced number of carries.

So, he is in decline, he sees and feels it coming, he sees that his team is set up for him to take another serious beating in '04, and he got out while people like could still debate whether or not he was worth a damn or not.

I hear words like “tough”, “powerful” and “determined” to describe Ricky Williams. Again I have to say, so what?

Williams’ loss to the league will not be noticed. The NFL is full of tough, determined, powerful players. Those aren't qualities that make any of them special in comparison to their peers.

If he wants to take the millions he's already earned and go smoke dope for the rest of his life, fine. No big loss to the NFL and not even much of a loss to Miami, because the Dolphins will not be seeing the playoffs with or without him.