Ricky Williams

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

Family

American football running back (retired) who played twelve seasons in the National Football League (NFL) and one season in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the University of Texas, where he was a two-time All-American and won the Heisman Trophy. Williams was born (with his twin sister Cassandra) in San Diego, California, to 19-year-old Sandy Williams and her husband, 18-year-old Errick Williams. Growing up middle class, his parents divorced in 1983 and Williams, at the age of 5, was taking care of his sisters by putting them to bed and even cooking for them. By high school Williams was an honor roll student and was named to the San Diego Union-Tribune All-Academic team. Williams accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Texas, where he played for the Texas Longhorns football team from 1995 to 1998. Williams was drafted by the New Orleans Saints fifth overall in the 1999 NFL Draft and spent three seasons with the team before he was traded to the Miami Dolphins in 2002. He played for the Dolphins for three seasons, and retired for the first time from football in 2004. Due to his suspension from the NFL in 2006, he played for the Toronto Argonauts that year. Williams re-joined the Dolphins in 2007 and played with them until 2010, and spent the 2011 season with the Baltimore Ravens. He was formerly an assistant football coach at the University of the Incarnate Word and is currently a football analyst for ESPN's Longhorn Network. Williams was briefly a spokesperson for the drug Paxil as treatment. He worked with the drug company GlaxoSmithKline to educate the public about the disorder. Williams later quit Paxil saying the drug did not agree with his diet. Williams said that his marijuana use was a type of "psychotherapy",has been a better treatment since it produced fewer side effects than Paxil. In an interview with ESPN, Williams stated, "Marijuana is 10 times better for me than Paxil." Williams admitted in a 60 Minutes interview that one of the reasons for his retirement was to avoid the humiliation of his marijuana use being made public with his third failed drug test. After his retirement he went to California to get a prescription for medical marijuana. Williams is also a qualified yoga instructor; he is vegan or at least has a meat-free diet. Williams is reportedly the father of seven children by three different women. Three of these children are by his longtime girlfriend turned wife, Kristin Barnes, whom he married on 4 September 2009. They agreed on an open marriage. Link to Wikipedia biography