Miami Dolphins’ head coach Tony Sparano released his players last Thursday from practice and sent them home for their 3 day weekend with a warning, “stay home and keep out of trouble”. For most of the players the idea of staying home with their families for 3 days instead of training or traveling for a game is a welcome break, but for at least one Dolphin it raises a problem

RB Ricky Williams admitted on Monday of this week that he still wrestles with, as recently as this past weekend, the temptation to use marijuana. Williams has tested positive for marijuana 4 times in his NFL career and has been in the NFL’s substance abuse program since 2002. Williams is running out of strikes when it comes to violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy, he has been suspended twice already in his career. The first time for 4 games, the second for an entire season.

Williams has admitted that he still faces the temptation to use marijuana, but he knows that he cannot allow himself to slip up or his NFL career will be over. Williams is tested 9 times a month, randomly, and sometimes has a clinician show up at his house before dawn to test him. Williams has said that sometimes the urges are stronger than others and that he tracks the length of the urge to determine how strong it really is. Sometimes it is a few minutes, sometimes 10, sometimes 20. Williams admits to never having any serious urges, but that he does often have urges of some type. Williams has developed his own unique way of dealing with them, meditation. When urges come, Williams simply meditates to clear his mind and help refocus.

So the question is, in America should we condemn Ricky or praise him for his perserverance? To me the answer is simple, Ricky should be praised. He has run the course most with drug/alcohol problems do, you get started, things get out of control, you hit rock bottom, and slowly come out…if you’re lucky. For Ricky, rock bottom would be his unexpected retirement in 2004 shortly before the season. After retirement he dropped off the face of the Earth, apparently traveling through Australia and India. Williams came back to the NFL and struggled to re-establish himself. He served a suspension at the start of the 2005 season, before again testing positive for a drug related to holistic medicine that got him suspended for the whole 2006 season. Since then Williams has been clean and is working through his issues.

The point here is that Williams, unlike so many others, is man enough to admit to his problem and stare it down. Take for example former Denver Bronco’s RB Travis Henry. Henry was arrested yesterday for his involvement in a cocaine deal. Henry last year served a 4 game suspension himself for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Henry is now out of football and with his arrest yesterday is clearly incapable of conquering his demons and attempting to lead a normal life.

Just to be clear, I don’t support drug use (obviously), however I believe that people are entitled a second chance in life if they show they are capable of overcoming adversity. Williams has made no secret of the fact that his urges to use remain, but overcome drugs or alcohol is never about eliminating the urge, that is impossible in most cases. The important thing is being mature enough to manage your urges and avoid temptation. Why should we condemn Ricky Williams for succeeding in holding his demons in check?