Ricky Williams
I like to live in places that are kind of off in the cuts so people can't really find me even if they wanted to.
I allowed myself to think if I could be doing anything in the world, what would I be doing? And what came to mind is I'd be traveling a little bit, I'd be going to classes and I'd be going back to school.
It's good to do things slow in the bush. It makes you appreciate everything a lot more.
People are hungry because they're eating empty foods. Mine are full, and so am I.
If you replace the word God in the Bible with the word Truth, it reads exactly right.
I really do love football.
And I think if you look at any relationship, for the relationship to be productive and to move forward and to grow, sometimes things have to be said that one person or the other person is not going to like to hear.
I've never been in trouble with the police.
I want to really start focusing on what I want to accomplish and what it is I want to achieve, but not micromanaging this or that and focusing on the little things.
Human beings aren't supposed to be controlled and told what to do.
I've always been attracted to things that are taboo. I've never been afraid to go to that dark place.
At the core, we're all spiritual beings.
The more I pay attention to what's going on inside, the more I realize that how I feel, and how I react to what I feel, really creates my reality. And the more in touch I can be, the better chance I have to control what's happening in my life.
I feel no need and have no desire to give any attention to other people's opinion of me.
I don't care what people think about me because I know I am more than all the pain and strife they hold inside.
I had this notion that everyone was staring at me and judging everything about me, from my appearance to the way I talk and everything.
I would drive home and see people wearing my No. 34 jersey and wonder why, because I didn't feel worthy of that. And all the time I just knew people were staring at me, talking about me everywhere I went.
Growing up with two sisters, you either play by yourself or play Barbie with them. I played by myself.
If I can walk, I'll play.
I think I have a tendency to look at things subjectively rather than objectively when I reflect on my experience.
I got high, and forgot I wasn't supposed to get high.Collection: Marijuana
I'm halfway intelligent. I'll figure something out.Collection: Intelligent
Greatness is the willingness to choose in the midst of intensity.Collection: Greatness
I'm nice because, when I was growing up, so many people weren't nice to me, and I remember how that felt. And I don't want to make anyone else feel like that. I value nice.Collection: Growing Up
Everywhere I go, I hear 'Welcome back.' But everywhere I have been, I have always been with myself. I'm with myself now more than ever. It's funny people say 'Welcome back' when I haven't gone anywhere.Collection: People
I wouldn't eat a chicken if it dropped dead in front of me holding up a sign that said, Eat Me.Collection: Vegetarian
I am more mature. I'm a better football player. I just feel like this is my time.Collection: Football
I've had a lot of clouds in my life since I got into pro football -- too many -- but now I feel like I can see really clearly for the first time. And I can see the Super Bowl from here.Collection: Football
I led the NFL in attempts the past two years and they really didn’t go out and get a quarterback to help me so I knew it’s going to be all on me again. I could see my mortality as a football player, that I’m not going to be able to do this much longer. It just became obvious to me that playing football for me is not going to be fun, not something I’m going to enjoy and it’s time for me to do something different.Collection: Football
Depending on their fondest memory of you, most people hold on so tightly to their fondest memory they don’t usually let you be anything greater than that. And that’s one of the things I think I allowed myself to be a victim of earlier in my career. What I learned as I got older is I decide. I decide what it’s like for me, not other people. You can be whatever you’d like to be. You just have to choose it.Collection: Memories
I look very foolish. To a lot of people I look foolish in what I'm doing and I understand that. The only thing that matters is how I feel and if I let how they feel affect me it'll change how I feel.Collection: People
I want people to think they can't die until they see me play.Collection: Thinking
It used to be irritating just because someone can meet you and before they would get a chance to get to know you, they’ll go find someone else’s story about who I am. For me personally, I just always think it’s more interesting to get to know the person myself.Collection: Thinking
And any time you feed your ego, it's a one-way street. ... There were so many things I had to deal with that erased the positives I got from playing the game that it wasn't worth it. It's like eating a Big Mac and drinking a Diet Coke.Collection: Drinking
After I won the Heisman Trophy, it just was OK, I’m supposed to go to the NFL and so that’s what I did. I didn’t really have any expectations and I didn’t really understand how things worked.Collection: Nfl
I love myself. Because I'm all that I have and if I don't love myself, no one else will. Whenever I feel myself starting to dislike something I tell myself, "This is who I am," so what's the point in disliking it?Collection: Dislike
I can look back at it now as definitely like an initiation into adulthood. Almost overnight in the NFL, I was put on a pedestal and I was supposed to be this icon or this image of what a professional athlete was supposed to be. I felt like I just got stuck trying to be someone else and I forgot who I actually was.Collection: Athlete
Everywhere I go, people hear Ricky Williams and the next thing they think is marijuana or wasted talent.Collection: Marijuana
Coaches want so many things from a back. It's hard to find someone like Edgerrin James or Marshall Faulk, someone you can trust to block, catch and be physical. But I can do all those things.Collection: Block
Football is my job, not my life, but it's a job I'm going to give my all for as long as I'm in it.Collection: Football
My helmet is off; I'm not afraid anymore.Collection: Not Afraid
It's funny, people say 'Welcome back' when I haven't gone anywhere.Collection: People
My whole thing in life is I just want freedom. I thought that money would give me that freedom. I was wrong. It bound me more than it freed me, because now I had more things to worry about, more people asking for money, I thought I had to buy a house and nice cars and different things that people with money are supposed to do.Collection: Nice
I've always been shy, but in New Orleans there were times my shyness would cause me actual physical pain. I'd get so claustrophobic around people that I'd bend over from the sickness in my stomach. That's not a good way to be when you're famous, obviously.Collection: Pain
One of the biggest things I've done is learn how to love myself, flaws and all. Even the things I don't like about myself, I accept. People have made fun of me and made me self-conscious about talking so softly, for example, but I accept that as who I am and I'm not changing it for anybody. I'm at peace with who I am now, and once you've achieved that, all the other stuff disappears.Collection: Fun
When I retired, I felt that I lived more in that year than I had the previous 27 years of my life.Collection: Years
I've followed freedom for a long time and I finally feel I've got more of it. People talk about the money that I've given up and the money that I've lost. But the knowledge and the wisdom that I've gotten from this experience is priceless.Collection: Long