Do you now own your own life? I asked.

"So many of us cannot decipher between who we are and what we do," he answered. "I am in the process of negotiating with the mortgage company."

That would seem to suggest that Williams is strongly considering a comeback, but there's a side of him that remains far, far removed from the NFL lifestyle. He recently spent six weeks in India as the attendant for Swami Sitaramananda, a Vietnamese woman he met after participating in one of her fellow swami's yoga classes at the California College of Ayurveda. Williams ultimately dropped out of school and began studying under Swami Sitaramananda.

"She has an amazing ability to understand my mind, to know what I am thinking," Williams wrote, adding that since he has returned from India, "I am in culture shock. I'm having a tough time dealing with regular folk."

While in India Williams witnessed something that he came to view as an allegory, one that may or may not shed some light onto his future plans. "I tell the story of the frustrated monkey," Williams wrote. "He wanted some cookies so bad, he put his hand in the jar, grabbed a big handful. Then, when he couldn't get his hand out, he became very angry."

And how did Williams react?

"I told him to just let the cookies go."

SO THIS IS WHAT IT HAS COME TO?

On Thursday Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan traded for a punter who was recently named in a CBS report as having obtained illegal prescription steroids and who last year was charged with drunken driving and fined for being overweight ... but this Jerry Rice thing? Uh, let him sleep on it.

CAL SOFTBALL ITEM OF THE WEEK

The Bears secured the second seed in the 64-team NCAA tournament -- and the reward was a three-hour bus ride to Fresno. Now, in the wake of Thursday night's stunning, 3-1 loss to BYU, Cal is on the brink of elimination. After being no-hit by Kristina Thorson for five innings, the Cougars rallied for three runs in the sixth to spoil the return of star outfielder Lindsay James after a six-week absence.

Play in the Group of Death, one featuring four conference winners who are nationally ranked (or who have been this season), continues Friday and Saturday, and the Bears must win two games on each day to advance to the Super Regionals and have a chance of extending their NCAA-high string of six consecutive Women's College World Series appearances. Given that Cal has a pair of All-Pac-10 pitchers in Thorson and Kelly Anderson, the Bears are fully capable of such a run, but they need to start hitting, and now. Even under a best-case scenario, they'll probably have to do so at some point against 15th-ranked Fresno State's star hurler, Jamie Southern, who threw a shutout against Long Beach State Thursday -- and Cal would have to do it in spite of 4,000 rabid Bulldogs fans.

This means that any Cal loyalist who lives within driving distance might want to hoof it to Fresno for Friday's 5:30 p.m. elimination game against Long Beach State and whatever else might follow. Upon entering the stadium find me behind the Cal dugout and hand me a beer -- I'll need it.