Ricky Williams famously retired from the NFL at age 27 with several failed marijuana tests and rumors of a third strike. Two decades later, he sat on a couch on the top floor of a low-rise building in Manhattan, blowing on a joint while “Monday Night Football” played in the background.
The room was filled with approximately 50 people, the majority of whom were smoking their own joints, resulting in a dense blanket of smoke. Few appeared to notice or care when the power went out on one side of the room for many minutes, extinguishing the music and television (and a few lights).
Williams circulated the room, conversing with his fellow stoners, one of whom wore his Dolphins jersey. This is Ricky Williams, one of the best college football players of all time, with four consecutive 1,000-yard NFL seasons (his 1,853-yard 2002 season is the 15th-most all time). It would have been a shocking sight 20 years ago, when not only was the general perception of marijuana considerably less lenient, but Williams was almost pushed out of the NFL due to many failed drug tests.
Williams told The Post while he continued to smoke marijuana, “I probably would have played longer.” “However, I likely would not have had the same impact… It wasn’t until I had life experiences, ran into problems, and began to discover who I truly was that my life began to have purpose.
Corey Sipkin with the New York Post captures Ricky Williams smoking a joint at his “Highsman House” event.
Now 45 years old, Williams has devoted his life to cannabis. But not only as a consumer, although he still consumes alcohol regularly. With the intention of integrating his two hobbies — athletics and marijuana – he founded his own cannabis company, Highsman, a little over a year ago. Appropriately named, given his 1998 Heisman Trophy as a star at the University of Texas.
In 2002, the Dolphins mortgaged their future on him by sending two first-round selections and more to the Saints in the hopes that he would become the team’s focal point. Three years prior to the Dolphins’ acquisition of Ricky, the Saints and head coach Mike Ditka traded all of their remaining picks in the 1999 NFL Draft to Washington in order to move up seven positions to select him. It is regarded as one of the worst transactions in NFL history, and it effectively ended Ditka’s NFL career.)
But after two successful seasons in 2002 and 2003, he abruptly announced his retirement days before the 2004 training camp was to begin, citing failing drug tests as the reason. Williams was somewhere between a pariah and a laughingstock due to the enormity of the story. The Dolphins finished with a record of 4-12, and head coach Dave Wannstedt resigned in the middle of the season. Moving to Australia and living in a tent commune, Williams practically vanished from the face of the Earth.
He later returned to the NFL (and played a year in the CFL following another suspension for marijuana use), but he never again reached the heights of his career before to retirement. He feels that his career trajectory would have been different if attitudes towards cannabis had been the same back then as they are now.
Highsman offers cannabis in five U.S. states: California, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Three strains of cannabis are curated by the company: Pregame (an energetic sativa), Halftime (a hybrid), and Postgame (a sleepytime indica). They also organize events, such as the “Highsman House” smoke sesh and “Monday Night Football” viewing party that The Post attended last week (and where we, allegedly, sampled the product).
Several states legalize marijuana in 2022, including New York, where the event took place (at Work ‘n Roll, a WeWork-like coworking facility where customers are encouraged to smoke while working). The NFL isn’t quite as tolerant of marijuana as some areas of society, but the league has recently cut back significantly on marijuana tests and suspensions for using it.
“At least 80 percent of NFL players smoke marijuana today,” Williams speculated. “I don’t believe they smoke before games, but there may be one or two players that do. The NFL only conducts a single test throughout training camp. However, in this day and age, marijuana is prevalent and easy to obtain. Why wouldn’t you be in the NFL, in my opinion?”
The NFL has frequently punished marijuana violations — again, now entirely legal in many U.S. states – more severely than, among other horrible felonies, domestic violence. Due to positive marijuana tests, several players, including Josh Gordon and Martavis Bryant, have received extended penalties and had their careers effectively ended. Under the current collective bargaining agreement enacted in 2021, however, players are no longer banned for positive drug tests, with NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith citing “changing societal values”
If Williams had played today instead of 20 years ago, his prime years might not have been lost. However, he is not bitter. Instead, he is utilizing Highsman, whose website describes itself as “where athletics and cannabis meet,” to create events and educate the public about the benefits of smoking marijuana.
Williams stated, “I hope that in the future, not only the front office but also the coaches will see the benefits of the players consuming cannabis.” “One thing I’ve heard from both active and retired players is that the retiring players are blaming themselves for not discovering cannabis sooner. And many of the current players say they prefer cannabis because when they drink, they tend to want to go out and get into trouble.
“When they smoke, they desire to watch football at home. If only the coaches realized…”
Lane Radbill, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Highsman, was previously employed by Athletes for CARE, a non-profit organization that promotes the physical and mental health of athletes. Medical marijuana is a popular alternative treatment for a variety of difficulties athletes confront, including chronic pain, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
While Highsman is primarily a firm that sells marijuana, Williams describes it as a “lifestyle brand” and claims he founded it in large part to eliminate the stigma associated with the drug.
“All cannabis-related narratives are false,” Williams stated. “When I was going through all of my issues with the NFL and attempting to get support or assistance, no one had anything to say that really spoke to me. And I believe that my journey has been an authentic one, and I have much to contribute.”
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