High and dry

It's that time of year again, football fans. Coaches are preparing for training camp, players are holding out for more money, fans are reading up on their favorite squads and Miami Dolphins fans wish they could fly farther south for the winter.\nRicky Williams has lost his dreadlocks and his desire to play pro football, along with South Florida's hopes for postseason play, leaving for clearer water and greener shrubbery (both the legal and illegal kind).\nLeft in his wake is a coach whose job is in jeopardy, teammates who feel betrayed and more than a million Floridians who are asking for the first time, "Is it basketball season, yet?"\nIt seems that everyone, even those without fins on their helmets, couldn't be more critical of a running back who abruptly decided to swim away from his tropical paradise.\nBut who are we, as fans and journalists, to say he's made a wrong decision? After all, it is his life. Who are we to say what he should and shouldn't do regarding his life and career?\nWould there be the same reaction at the water cooler if Matt Damon decided to walk away to pursue other interests after making eight figures?\nIf the guy doesn't want to play ball anymore, then he shouldn't play. He now has the means to pursue whatever will make him happy, so how can you blame him for doing so?\nAside from Tony Soprano and the action he'll lose on Dolphins games this winter, who will truly suffer from Ricky's departure?\nJust as it disgusted me when journalists bad-mouthed Michael Jordan for wanting to play baseball, journalists need to leave a guy alone for doing what he wants to do with his life. \nBe upset because the Dolphins fell victim to bad timing and selfishness, not a bad decision.\nEither way the damage done, both past and present, leaves Miami fans scratching their heads in what turned out to be one of the worst personnel gambles in the history of the game.\nIt was just like shooting craps. The Miami franchise rolled the dice and put two first-round picks on the pass line. After the Dolphins failed to make the playoffs in the Ricky Williams era, Dave Wannstedt and company have rolled craps-out, now forfeiting the possibility of improving in the draft to put No. 34 in the backfield for a pair of disappointing seasons.\nTo boot, their struggling offense has cost one of the finer defenses in the NFL the opportunity to win a championship. The cliche goes, "Defense wins championships." But I guess Williams proved experts wrong when he showed the football world that a raw deal trumps all.\nIn a sport where the window of opportunity to win a championship is only open for a couple of years, the Dolphins desperately need to call the handyman to install new glass after a dreadlock-hurricane left them with their windows blown completely out.\nNow all that's left is a slim hope to recoup a running game and what will be an ongoing debate over what Ricky now owes Miami, not in apologies or charity donations, but in reparations due to a group he left high and dry.\nBecause of a penalty clause written into his contract, which is set to expire in 2006, Miami can try to recover $5.3 million in incentive bonuses, including $3.3 million of the $8.8 million signing bonus he received from the Saints.\nAlthough the Dolphins say they've made no decision on whether to pursue the matter, they'd be foolish not to. In a business where money controls all, they'd be crazy not to try and get back as much of their lost stock as possible.\nWhy miss a chance to get back some of your investment after your prize piece didn't live up to his end of the bargain?\nStill, the real anger stemming from this debacle should be coming from the league office, who was left embarrassed when Williams laughingly admitted he and many others circumvented a drug testing policy that the NFL boasts as the most strict in professional sports.\nStating he and a good portion of pro football players commonly used a masking agent to conceal his regular marijuana habit, the NFL is now forced to answer questions about drug testing that have plagued baseball and scrutinized its biggest stars.\nAnd from the perspective of the powers that be in the NFL, what was to be achieved from Ricky's confession other than to create more turmoil?\nIf Williams wanted to be done with football, then so be it. But exposing the league to what could emerge as a terrible public relations problem purely out of spite was Ricky's biggest mistake. It has also become exponentially damaging to the Miami Dolphins and the NFL.\nBut for now, all that's left are upset fans, dejected teammates and a squad whose season's hopes have gone up in smoke.