What?

You thought you were rid of me so easily?
Heh. EWOTTBE, remember? (eyes wide open til the bitter end)

Nope, just out of town, visiting the family, enjoying these beautiful days out of doors. Forgot the camera though. It's nice to come back here and be aware of the changes just this little bit north, though. America's amazing in her variety, that's one of our strongest points, I think.

Anyway, speaking of being rid of...
Let's pretend I took the time here to set up a poll, and just never revealed the result. How do you vote? The Dolphins should or should not welcome back Ricky Williams. Now please don't vote if you don't know of Ricky Wm's, and remember to consider all factors. Vote now please, and show your work:








































Me? I say you have to go for it, at this point. What do you have to lose? Ricky plays with heart, and I can't believe he's unlikeable. No, his faults and failures honestly added up still don't equal so big a risk that you don't take him back.

Norm always told me that Daunte Culpepper made up for his slow ability to pick up the defenses by his scrambling ability. But he wasn't sorry to see him leave Minnesota for that basic fault. Still, how they ushered him out in Miami was not handled with class, and class counts. When you saw D.C. was picked up by Oakland, and took a look at the schedule, well who didn't see yesterday's fire game coming? He's a man afterall, and men have pride. Most men -- that type of game-player, I mean. Even if he's a scrub the rest of the year, he's fired up for that game, naturally.

Same with the knock on Randy -- the misinterpretation, in my opinion -- that Randy ever said "I play when I want to play." No, I always took that as "I can't give 110% all the time; I have to be efficient if I want to play at this "beauty" level." (My words, of course.) You just can't turn it on on every play, was how I read that one, and physically, it makes sense.

So Ricky Williams? Please I hope when I'm reading your work you didn't mention the "role model" angle. Points off for that. Whoever added that to the skill set of pro athletes was probably a parent not willing to do the heavy lifting of their job themselves.

So yeah. Holla back if Ricky comes knocking. I told you I remember the years in Chicago of "Payton right" ... "Payton left" ... "Payton up the middle" ... , didn't I? That man was efficient. Ronnie Brown can't do the same; nobody can nowadays, not like that. Talk about stretching and earning every yard, and maybe even getting a few extras on the field on acting ability alone.... Sure, physically it killed him, but what we know now that we didn't know then... And likeable? Yes, everyone loved him, but you tell me how funny some of those "practical jokes" he pulled seemed at the time, and how many were remembered in a better light after he left us. I'm sure for a man like that, efficient and beautiful but a workhorse who couldn't give less than 110% couldn't simply put, that losing -- all those losing years -- was felt extra-sensitive. Meaning it hurt him more than most -- some people can shrug off losses, but I think it added up on him even though he never let it slow his play. Damn shame they never bought him any backup, somebody who also cared to play at that level year in year out. I think they never really tried to understand what they were asking him to do, alone and how he carried a franchise. Sometimes you just see things in retrospect, which is fine, but how much better and rarer those that play in the moment and shine?

This Ricky -- I don't really follow it closely enough to know if he should even share the same paragraph as Sweetness. But there you go -- that's who I'm giving the top grade to, based on the work submitted. The work that best answers this question -- a variation on a theme I've been playing with lately, but Boom!I think I hit the hole and hereby retire it here: WWWD?
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What Would Walter Do ?

I gotta think he'd understand Ricky Williams too.