Run Ricky Run

Is it Ricky Williams or the rest of us who are screwed up?

That one of the fundamental questions of Sean Pamphilon and Royce Toni's outstanding five-year look at the NFL running back who walked away from the sport in August 2004.

Everyone was quick to judge Williams for hanging up his cleats, saying he chose smoking marijuana over playing football, but ask yourself this: if you're not happy playing football – and not happy with who you are — should you really keep playing just because everyone else thinks that what you should do?

Just because few people could fathom walking away from a lucrative NFL contract, the spotlight, the fame, and everything else they associate with being a professional athlete doesn't mean Williams was wrong in his decision. It was his decision, for his reasons, and it seems to have helped him grow as a person, which trumps anything he could have achieved on the football field.