I just finished watching a documentary about the Dolphins running back Ricky Williams and it was aMAzing. It was part of the 30 for 30 series on ESPN. 30 documentaries on various topics in sports. Five years ago Ricky Williams was one of the most hated people in sports. He had just failed his fourth drug test for MArijuana and had just spent months in Australia abandoning his teamMAtes and family. At the time he had three children to three different women and with his marijuana history was portrayed by the media as a selfish person who hated football. the documentary shows his travels to Australia and California in which he studies the art of holistic healing and eventually converts to buddhism, becoming a certified yogi in the process. All throughout the interviews in 2004 you see Williams as a MAn searching for an identity and a deeper meaning to life. It seems like a pot head thing to do and although most of us would condemn him for leaving his family and all the money the Miami Dolphins were paying him I found myself trying to figure out exactly why he left it all. He had been trapped in the mold of what America wanted him to be and what his peers in the football community expected him to be and in 2004 he decided to get away from it all. In a way I envied Ricky, he had the balls to go out and find what he wanted from life. I don't condone what he did to his family because leaving his children was a selfish move, but the intentions of his soul searching were brave and in a way commendable. The film was done brilliantly and showed us a side of Ricky Williams I was not aware of, at times he sounded a bit like a pot head especially in his 04 interviews, but I saw an intelligent MAn who had been misunderstood his entire professional career. Like any American I love a redemption story and as he returned in 2009 to run for 1100 yards it was good to see the final credits role as he spent time with his children. After watching the film I thought of another misunderstood "drug" addict, Eminem. Not who he is or why he does what he does but his new freestyle that was released today. It is called Despicable in which he rips Drake's Over and Llyod Banks's Beamer, Benz or Bentley. Here is a link check it out and get ready for his new single coming out next week and his newly titled album Recovery. I just read that the new single entitled Not Afraid is out this Thursday so watch out!
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