Ricky ruins his rep

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- A couple of weeks ago Ricky Williams found himself on I-10 in western Louisiana, going 126 miles an hour in his Mercedes SUV, returning to New Orleans from his Mom's store in Texas, where he'd signed some autographs to drum up business. Only he didn't know he was going 126 until a couple minutes later when he stopped to fill his tank at a gas station. That's when a cop steamed in, pointed a gun at Williams and told him not to move.

List of the Week Free-agent contracts I like and hate after 10 days of the signing period ... I hate: 1. Sam Cowart, Jets. Flash back to late November 2000. Cowart, a tackling machine, was the AFC's defensive player of the month after a 62-tackle, 4.5-sack monster of a month. In the Bills' next 20 games, through the end of last season, Cowart played five regular-season plays. Not five months, five games or five quarters. Five plays! He went down on Nov. 26, 2000 in Tampa with an ankle injury that caused him to miss the last four games of the Bills' season. And, last Sept. 9, he tore his Achilles on the fifth play of the 2001 season. You would expect the Jets to play hardball with him in negotiations. Not so. The Jets gave him $1.8 million to sign and $1.2 in salary in 2002. You're handing a guy with question marks $3 million in 2002, which is a favor to him, because obviously he has to prove himself again. The Jets get no bargain in return. For a guy who hasn't played any football that counted since two Thanksgivings ago, the Jets agreed to put a roster bonus of $6 million in the deal effective on the fourth day of the league year -- presumably March 4, 2003. If they exercise the option, the second part of the contract kicks in, with salaries of $1 million, $3.7 million, $4 million, $5.5 million and $6.8 million over years 2 through 6. The thing I don't like is a team paying a man fairly for one year, then having to make such a gigantic commitment to him after seeing him for 16 games -- particularly when there wasn't another team out there willing to commit to paying Cowart $3 million this year and $7 million next year.  2. Jeff Robinson, Cowboys. Let me get this straight: A long-snapper and backup tight end gets $800,000 to sign? And $4.8 million over five years? I, and the rest of football America, wonder how in the world this man is worth it. "I wondered the same thing," Robinson said.  3. Eric Warfield, Chiefs. I guess I missed Warfield entering the Charles Woodson League. Five million to sign? That's a 1999 number. Roster and workout bonuses of a combined $400,000 and up beginning annually in 2003? Seven years and $28 million total? No wonder the Chiefs salary cap is so bloated every season.  4. Az-Zahir Hakim, Lions. In a different way, I have a feeling he'll go down as a latter-day Alvin Harper, a guy who was a very complementary player but when he got the big dough he couldn't put up the 85 catches his team expected.  5. Darren Woodson, Cowboys. For a big-hitting safety who'll be 32 next month, I question handing Woodson $4 million to sign and a five-year, $20-million package that he'll never see to maturity. The Cowboys will get two years, max, out of him.  I like:  1. John Parrella, Raiders. One of the game's truly underrated players. He'll be a rock for the Raiders for three years, at least.  2. Larry Chester, Dolphins. Two defensive tackles 1-2 on my hit parade. Interesting. You've never heard of Chester, but four years and $8.9 million for the reincarnation of Jim Burt -- a bigger one at that -- is well worth it.  3. Steve White, Jets. As much for the guy as the player. Good guy, personable human, hard worker, great for the locker room, hard-tryer. And he can bother the passer when given the chance.  4. Mike Maslowski, Patriots. Third-year player, special-teams ace who should be able to contribute in Bill Belichick's defense, and he cost 1.3 percent of this year's salary cap -- $900,000. The Pats like him, and that's good enough for me.

"Is that a gun?" Williams asked.

It was, and Williams was shoved up against his car, cuffed, and taken to the local gendarmerie. "We just burned half a tank of gas trying to catch you," the cop told him.

Once they found out who Williams was, the booking and fine-paying and autograph-signing got a lot easier. I asked Williams if he thought the rough treatment had anything to do with him being black. No, he told me. It had to do with him doing 126.

When I told this story to Williams' former Saints teammate Kyle Turley Sunday night, he laughed. "That's perfect Ricky," Turley said. "We're going to miss him." Turley's response to his team having traded Williams was perfect Turley. "It sucks," he said. "But there's a lot about our team that sucks right now."

I went to California on Saturday to interview Williams for Sports Illustrated. His weekend shows how unusual it is being Ricky Williams. He was in New Orleans Friday, was informed of the trade (by his mother, who'd heard it from his pal, Don West, who works in agent Leigh Steinberg's office), ditched the TV cameras near his home, packed a bag, flew to San Diego Friday night, hung with his agents and friends up the coast in Newport Beach Saturday and flew all the way back to Fort Lauderdale Sunday for Monday's meet-and-greet at the Dolphins' headquarters. Traveling out west allowed him to reconnoiter with his business and personal adviser, Steinberg, and let him escape being Ricky Williams for 36 hours.

I expected to find him euphoric about going to the Dolphins. He was happy. But make no mistake about it: Williams is not happy to leave New Orleans. He told GM Randy Mueller recently that he wanted to stay, and he reiterated that to me. Not angrily, just matter-of-factly. He liked the players. He told me a hilarious story about coach Jim Haslett standing in front of his players a few days after 9/11 and telling them since the games that weekend were being postponed they would instead fly to Pittsburgh for a scrimmage and work out with the Steelers. Williams said he could tell by looking around the room this wasn't sitting well with his teammates, who were either too distracted or too concerned about being with their families to think about a trip out of town. And he said Turley stood up, launched a few f-bombs about the trip, said he wasn't going, and threw a banana against the wall, eviscerating it. The Saints did not go to Pittsburgh.

"I should have been in New Orleans my whole career," he said. "I'm a very loyal person. They gave up a lot for me three years ago, and the controversy of all that was put aside and I was just playing football now. I was a part of the city and the team. I was playing well.

"I think it made it worse that I wasn't their guy. When the new administration came in [after Williams' rookie year in 1999], from Day 1, I never felt like I was their guy, their kind of guy. And now, they didn't like the fact that I was [with] the Saints. The fans are telling me, 'Don't leave!' I love the city, the team. And when I finally get acclimated, they get rid of me."

Williams did not spit out these words. He said them calmly, sort of the way he asked the cop about the gun. That's his life these days. He doesn't freak at the little things, inside or outside. Plus, he knew he was like a kid who just opened two great toys on Christmas and was told he could keep only one of them. He was happy going to Miami. Happier than staying? It was close.

"I'm pretty good at looking at the bright side of things," he said. "And this is my chance. Miami's a great team, a playoff team, and I know I'll get the ball there." I stayed with Williams for a couple of hours, talking about many things, because he says what pops into his head. And when we parted, he said: "Peter, one favor. Don't tell anyone how cooperative I was. It'll ruin my reputation."

Your secret's safe with me.

Quote of the Week

Baltimore coach Brian Billick on the free-agency-depleted Ravens, who have lost 11 of 22 starters from 2001, mostly because of cap reasons: "I'm too arrogant and too competitive to think we won't win this year. Really, I find the situation we're in energizing. What should I do, crawl into the fetal position and just lay there? All I know is this: Any time I want to, I can open this little case in my house, look at my Super Bowl ring, and realize I'm not the dumb ass everyone thinks I am."

Ricky Williams, lover of dreadlocks, named his daughter after Bob Marley. Not Bob. But Marley.

1. I think the Packers will get one good year out of Terry Glenn. That's how long I trust him to keep it together.

2. I think Rob Johnson will be hurt by Columbus Day.

3a. I think the CBS documentary 9/11 was terrific. It's so America to protest a show that so reverently treats the firefighters who worked the scene tirelessly and bravely. There are a lot of channels on television now. Novel concept: If the wounds are too fresh, people, don't watch the show.

3b. I think the best thing about the Bobby Knight movie is that it's over, and we don't have to see the sickeningly unending promos anymore.

4. I think these are my three leftover thoughts on Tino Martinez and his new team, the Cards, after writing about Martinez for the magazine last week:

a. When the Martinez family -- Tino, wife Marie, 9-year-old Olivia, 8-year-old T.J. and 6-year-old Victoria -- flew from their permanent home in Tampa to Manhattan to clean out their 29th-floor Lower East Side apartment at the end of last season, the writing was on the wall. Jason Giambi was in. Dad was out. T.J., a huge baseball fan, was ticked. Tino had to tell him not to be mad at Giambi. He's a good guy; it's baseball, Tino told him. But T.J.'s bedroom door was adorned with a poster of one of his favorite players, Giambi. He said he didn't like Jason Giambi anymore. "T.J. felt like Jason took his dad's job," said Marie. "I had to tell him, 'T.J., you can still like him. It's okay. If you want, we'll get you a poster of Jason in a Yankees uniform when it comes out.'" That's how un-bitter Marie and Tino Martinez are.

b. Re: Mark McGwire: "As last season went on," Tony La Russa said, "Mark kept telling me, 'I don't want to leave you high and dry. You better make your plans without me.' I kept pleading with him to understand that his contributions -- 29 home runs and 60 RBI in 300 at-bats (actually 299) -- were real contributions. I believe knowing his workout regimen that Mark in 2002 would have hit 35 to 50 home runs. No doubt in my mind. I told him that. But you know what the problem was? He didn't trust his body. He didn't want to go through all that work and have his body let him down again. The other thing is that he's a man of great pride. And 35 to 50 is not 65 to 70. He didn't know if he could tolerate hitting .220 with 35 home runs."

c. Coffeenerdness: La Russa misses the Starbucks Mocha Frappucino McGwire would leave on the manager's desk every morning in spring training.

5. I think nature has it wrong. March actually comes after February, not after December, and it's supposed to be softball season now. Warm up!

6. I think these are my college basketball thoughts of the week:

a. I heard TV and radio commentators call the SEC "the SEC conference," the MAC "the MAC conference," and the WAC "the WAC conference." Fellas, that's like calling the National Football League "the NFL league."

b. How can Michelle Tafoya work for both CBS and ESPN? She does, doesn't she?

c. The most underrated team of our time is the UConn women's team. Is there any real appreciation in the sports world for what Geno Auriemma and his marvelous players have done?

d. I don't like Digger Phelps' hair.

e. I am still trying to figure out why Billy Packer would say something like what he said during Iowa-Indiana Saturday: "Isn't it interesting, the IU [Indiana] fans booing Luke Recker as they did in Bloomington?" What? The Conseco crowd is obviously going to be pro-Indiana. Why wouldn't it boo the guy who is to Hoosiers what Roger Clemens is to Red Sox Nation?

f. Jobbed: Gonzaga. Sixth seed? I say they beat Cincinnati, straight up, on a neutral court tomorrow.

g. Justifiably rewarded: UConn. Eighth in the RPI, beat Arizona on the road, beat Pitt to win the Big East. Should be a second seed.

7. I think I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to college basketball, but I'm giving it a shot.

8. I think Laura King is having a tough time with her kidney stone up at Tufts. So if you see her on campus, cheer her up for me, will you?

9. I think it seems as if we're getting a real war going in Afghanistan, doesn't it?

10. I think Siena's just got too much for Alcorn. It's madness, baby.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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