RICKY BUSINESS
By Deborah Wilker
 

Sometimes he forgets he’s famous. Maybe that explains his recent trip from Miami Beach to Fort Lauderdale — on a bicycle.

Then again, maybe not.

The NFL’s leading rusher in 2002 and Miami Dolphins record-breaker, had just returned to Miami from an out-of-town trip, when he realized both his cars were at his get-away pad in Fort Lauderdale.

So what’s a guy to do, call a limo? His manager? Hail a cab?
Not Ricky Williams.

Instead, he slaps on a pair of headphones, hops on his bike and rides about 30 miles on some of the nation’s most chaotic roads — from South Beach to downtown Fort Lauderdale.

“Yeah, I rode my bike. A taxi’s like $80,” Williams says with the appropriate level of indignation. “That’s a waste of money.”

Just wondering ... does Coach know about this?

“Well, I wouldn’t do it during the season.”

That’s probably little consolation to his agent, Leigh Steinberg, who told The New York Times last year that Williams should earn as much as $63 million through 2006 — assuming he keeps playing well.

Since arriving in Miami a year ago in a trade from the New Orleans Saints, the chiseled, dreadlocked running back has forced even casual football fans to snap to attention. His look, skill and cool demeanor have also put him in the running on Madison Avenue, where a number of commercial opportunities are now opening up for him.

Yet the people closest to Williams say selling out won't be his style.  At the moment he's concentrating on philanthropic activities: "adopting" disadvantaged elementary schools in Miami-Dade County, and selling his own photos on the soon-to-become www.galllery34.com to benefit his Ricky Williams Foundation, Miami Children's Hospital and other local charities.

Where does he pursue those burgeoning business opportunities, it's likely to be on "only with products that make sense and are of a personal interest to him," says one of his attorneys --- among them clothing, photographic equipment, computers, video games and hair products.  His first TV commercials, for a local car dealership, are scheduled to air in April; and the Ricky Williams Celebrity Golf Classic tees off for charity on March 24 at Miami's Westview Country Club.

With all this ahead of him, you have to wonder --- why risk it all by biking through our chaotic strreets?

"I leave that to fate," he says.  "I didn't even think about any other way to get there.  It was a nice day.  I wanted my car, so I got it."

The guy who leaves it all to fate also likes to drive to work barefoot, take public transportation when the mood hits, and would rather scramble a couple of eggs than dine at the celeb hot spots outside his front door.

When we caught up with the 1998 Heisman Trophy winner at his SoBe condo in February, it was just after a promising Dolphins season had fallen apart.  The guy who played so brilliantly all fall seemed a bit let down, but hardly devastated.

Close up, Williams has a Herculean look; remarkably fit and even wider than he appears on television.  Yes as he putters quietly around his home --- toying with his computer and sophisticated photo equipment --- there's not a thing intimidating about him, nothing that suggests the brute force and speed with which he can blast through a crowd.

As we start to talk, it's immediately apparent that Williams, 25, is intelligent, articulate and quite effusive --- hardly the guy who used to isolate himself in the locker room and give interviews with his helmet on.

The social anxiety disorder that haunted him for years (and was often misinterpreted), has been under control with medication and what appears to be a lot of self-determination.  It also helps that he has finally put his disappointing three-year stint in New Orleans squarely behind him.  "I was adjusting to so much then.  Not just the NFL.  Just learning how to grow up," he says.

So now that he's won us over; won a Cadillac at the Pro Bowl, and shifted smoothly into adulthood --- what's next?  Can he top himself next season?  Is he Hollywood's next action here?Will people ever, really, "get" him?

The most powerful man in our Power Issue has his say:

DW: Let's forget the $80 for a minute.  What's the real reason you rode your bike to Fort Lauderdale?
RW: When you drive everywhere, you really don't get to see what's here.

DW: You do realize that many big-time athletes would have snapped their fingers and yelled, "Get me to Fort Lauderdale," and that would have been that.
RW: Well, that may be the perception, but I don't really know if that's the case.  Not with me anyway.

DW: Do you feel that that kind of decision-making is what personifies you on the field as well --- the fact that you just sort of get wherever you have to go, no matter what?
RW: For the most part, that is pretty much how I look at things.  A lot of the guys laugh at me because I come to work barefoot.  I get out of bed.  I get in the car.  And they're like, Ricky, where are your shoes and I'm like, if you think about it, you come here to work and we immediately put on our football gear and then we go home.  What do I really need the shoes for?

DW: Your agent might say you need shoes because you could step on a nail walking into a gym and your career would be over.
RW: That did happen.  It was Christmas Eve.  I was walking barefoot in the parking lot and I cut my toe on a piece of glass or a rock --- and the trainer had to put a Band Aid on me.  It was kind of embarrassing.  But I've learned the last couple of years, at this point in my life, I am who I am.  I don't get upset about what people say about me.

DW: Are there lots of inaccuracies about you?
RW: Whatever they are I'm sure I did my part, too.  When you're in the public eye, the way you act isn't always going to be translated correctly.

DW: You seem very content.  Have you realized all of your dreams, or are you still searching?
RW: I'm not searching.  When you search too much you don't enjoy what you have.  Life's not always about where you're trying to go.  It's about today.  And even when you get to where you're going --- the joy last five minutes.  Five minutes.  That's it.  If you're lucky it might last the whole weekend.  When I won the Heisman Trophy I went up there, and got the trophy and then the weekend's over and it's like, now what?  It's not like every day after that I had a guy coming over every morning, announcing, 'And the winner of the Heisman Trophy is ...'

DW:There was so much Heisman hype years ago, so much expected of you.  Now that you've put it all together here in Miami, has it lead to any jealousy on the team?
RW: None at all.  We have fun.  Jealousy comes out when people are arrogant about what they do.  I don't ever take credit for what I do.  I'm just doing my job.

DW: You got pretty banged up this year.  The last game, against New England, when you went flying head first into what looked like a camera dolly.  That was scary.
RW: Yeah.  That thing hurt.  I was running out of bounds and I was pushed --- and it was funny because I just kept sliding and there was a cameraman and he jumped out of the way, and I'm sliding really fast thinking to myself, nothing's gonna stop me, and there's this dolly right there and I know I'm gonna hit it.  So I just tried to brace myself --- and then I stayed there for a minute.  I said OK, I should be in a lot of pain right now, and I wasn't, so I'm like I guess I'm all right.  The next week I was in a little pain.  But I guess at that point in the game, with the adrenaline pumping, I didn't feel a thing.

DW: You played especially well that day.  That has to be the worst kind of loss.
RW: I wasn't sure how upset I was would be. I've never been in that situation before where there was just so much talent and then ... I guess I expected more.  I was kind of in shock 'cause I know we can compete.  But all I can do is my job, get rest at night, work hard at practice and eat properly.

DW: You've said you feel a lot better since losing, what, 25 pounds?
RW: I do.  It's really made a difference in my confidence. 

DW: Doesn't it seem as if more players are getting really big --- like fat-big?
RW: I think it's happening all over the country.  Everything around us is designed to make us fat.  Everyone is always saying let's go to lunch, let's have dinner.  I have to fight it just to do a decent job.  Socially in this country, if you want to eat right, you almost have to be anti-social.  When you go out they give you so much food --- so much oil.  Every time I go out it sets me back two days.  The thing that you have to do is have good habits.  If you have one bad day, OK, maybe two.  But don't ever have three bad days in a row.

DW: Do you cook for the ladies?
RW: No.  I like dinner out, so you can talk.  But I made fried chicken yesterday.  I'm so proud of myself.  Growing up [in San Diego] I used to love fried chicken, but I never knew how my mom got the crackly stuff on the outside.

DW: Describe the perfect girlfriend.
RW: She's independent and she has a great sense of humor.

DW: Anyone serious right now?
RW: Not at this point in my life.  i don't think I could handle it.

DW: So your mistress is your website?
RW: (Laughs) Yes.  I love it.

DW: Your site, runrickyrun.com, really is fascinating.  You reveal a lot more about yourself than most celebrities do. It reads like a diary.
RW: I'm a little self-conscious.  Maybe it's too personal.  I still hold back a lot.  I hope!  The key for me is that a lot of people put athletes on a pedestal and I just want to show people that I'm normal.  Because of my site, people think I'm more like them.  It's just amazing to me ... I'm a football player and I have people e-mailing personal stuff about their lives and telling me what an inspiration I am.

DW: You also managed to bring people back who hadn't cared about the Dolphins in ages.  Your agent and some of the marketing people who work with you think you'll be writing your own ticket pretty soon --- movies, commercials, TV, you name it.
RW: I don't see myself in movies.  I see myself playing, hopefully, maybe five more years. What I'd really like to do is go back to school.  That's definite.  I'd like to go during the off-season, so when I'm done playing, I'm done.

DW: Then what?
RW: I think I'd like to be a teacher, or do something in education.

DW: Hardly the movie-star life.  We heard you took the bus the other day when you were in L.A.  What's that about?
RW: I was with my friend.  We were at the mall because I had to get some clothes.  Then he had to go home.  And I didn't have a ride back to the hotel.

DW: What do you mean you didn't have a ride back?  How does Ricky Williams keep ending up without a ride?
RW: I'm used to being where you can get a cab.  So I go outside and I'm looking around and there's no cab in sight.  I see a bus stop, and I think I'll just ride the bus.  I hadn't been on the bus since junior-high school when I had to ride the bus everyday.  So I get on --- I knew was about two or three miles from the hotel.  I had no idea where this bus was going, but I figured the hotel was on Pico [Boulevard], and I was already on Pico, so I would at least stay on until it turned, and then walk the rest of the way.  I kept looking 'cause I knew the cross street but I didn't know where any of the stops would be and I wanted to make sure I didn't get off too early and I didn't get off too late.  Luckily it stopped right on Avenue of The Stars, where the hotel was.  So I pulled off the little chime thing and I got off.

DW: Your are nothing if not resourceful.
RW: I like being good at whatever I do.

This interview with Ricky Williams (including pictures), was originally published in City & Shore's April/May 2003 issue on newsstands now in South Florida.  To order a copy, call 954-356-4051 or click here.  The price is $4.95 plus $1.25 to cover tax and postage (USA only, International may be more).

Photo on the home page: Williams wears a custom-tailored Hickey-Freeman worsted-wool suit, $1,500, courtesy of Maus & Hoffman, 800 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; 400 E. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton; and 312 Worth Ave., Palm Beach; Italian silk tie, $100, and Brioni shirt, $275, also available at Maus & Hoffman.