Ricky Williams Keeps It Real: Football, Freedom, and the Business of Being Yourself

Ricky Williams is more than a football legend. He is a thinker, a healer, and a man who has redefined himself well beyond the hash marks. While many remember him for his powerful running style, dreadlocks trailing behind his shoulder pads, and controversial relationship with the NFL, Williams has always been ahead of his time. Whether confronting the stigma of cannabis use or exploring astrology and holistic wellness, Ricky has walked his own path and built something meaningful from the labels others once placed on him.

In this exclusive Q&A on the Scoop B Radio Podcast, I caught up with the former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL All-Pro to talk about the intersection of football, freedom, and finding peace. Ricky opened up about the journey from being misunderstood in his playing days to becoming an entrepreneur with purpose in the cannabis space. His honesty is refreshing, his insight is real, and his perspective is deeply rooted in experience.

We reflected on his time in the NFL, from New Orleans to Miami and eventually Baltimore. He offered an honest look at what it was like to go back to the Dolphins in 2005, and how that second stint compared to the first. We also spoke about how running backs were valued in his era and how wide receivers are now viewed with the same type of spotlight and scrutiny.

From a football lens, Ricky shared who some of his favorite coaches were, which players he saw as true competitors, and the cultural contrast he experienced while playing in the Canadian Football League with the Toronto Argonauts. He also pulled back the curtain on what it was like being around Ray Lewis, one of the most intense figures in NFL history.

We touched on the now-iconic ESPN The Magazine cover, his transition into the cannabis industry, and how the game might have looked different for him if the NFL’s views on marijuana were more progressive during his playing days. Ricky does not hold back, and that is what makes this conversation so valuable.

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: You were labeled a lot during your NFL career. How did you take that experience and turn it into a passion and a business?

Ricky Williams: You know, it’s funny in a way, it’s kinda like the American Dream or at least the way I understood it and for me growing up I thought once I made it as an athlete, that I was free to pursue anything I wanted. 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: What’s tougher; making it to the NFL or staying in it once you’re there?

Ricky Williams:  It’s harder to make it. Because once you get in, you have an opportunity to prove yourself and I’ve seen guys with a decent talent level and they had a decent work ethic and a coach that trusted them and believed in him and they stayed in the league for over a decade. So I think the hardest part is to get there but, once you get there you have an opportunity to find ways to stay there. 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Who were some of your favorite coaches during your NFL career, and what made them stand out?

Ricky Williams:  I played one year with Nick Saban and I really liked Nick, you know? Because at least the way I played or the way I went about it was, Tell me what my job is… He was crystal clear about what my job is and he let me know what mark that would make me successful and he knew the mark that was not successful and Nick was really good at that. He let us know exactly what the expectation was.

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Do you think the value running backs had in your era is similar to how wide receivers are viewed today?

Ricky Williams: Oh for sure! When you think back to the 80’s and the 90’s, most of the big names were running backs and quarterbacks. But now you hear of two or three running backs but after that, you might not even recognize who the running back is for each of the teams now. 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Who did you consider your biggest competition at the running back position during your career?

Ricky Williams: So from the running back position because we were drafted — he was drafted 4th overall and I was drafted 5th overall so, we were compared throughout our whole careers to Edgerrin James. He was the main one; and then I think below him other guys around my age like Fred Taylor, Tiki Barber, Curtis Martin — who was kind of towards the end of his career but he was still putting up big numbers.

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: When you returned to the Dolphins in 2005, did it feel the same as it did during your first run with the team?

Ricky Williams: It was different. It was different in so many ways. A lot of the players were the same but Coach [Dave] Wannstedt and before him was Jimmy Johnson so there was kind of a feel around what it meant to be a Dolphin. I think when they let him go and they brought in Nick Saban, it changed. So it was the same uniform, same color and a lot of the same people but it was different. It was very different. My role with the team then was very different. I think before I retired, I was the offense and when I came back, Nick drafted Ronnie Brown; drafted another running back with a number #1 pick so it wasn’t just on my shoulders. So a lot was the same but it was very different in a lot of ways too. 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Do you think someone could actually play better in a football game while drinking or being high?

Ricky Williams: That’s a good question. In a lot of ways I would say drinking because you don’t care, you know? It’s something about that you have a couple of drinks in you and you don’t care and that kind of attitude can get you far in football in general. But if you drink too much and you start to forget your assignment, I think that will get you in trouble. And that’ll be the issue with being high — As long as you have studied your assignment and you know exactly what you’re doing then when you’re in the zone, you remember your assignment. I think if you don’t study when you get in the zone sometimes… you forget stuff. So in general I think drinking for football but, I think in all sports there’s something about being high that puts you into the zone or this area of creativity; and I think in football, creativity is a part of it but you don’t tend to think of that. You’re thinking about blocking and tackling and it’s more regimented like the military so, I think that’s where the stigma comes from in football more so than basketball where I never played basketball but I imagine that you have 10 guys on the court at one time and one guy could take over the game. But in football, it’s hard for one person to take over the game because even if it’s the quarterback, he needs a receiver to catch the ball; if it’s a running back we need the coach to call the plays and we need the line to block for him so that’s my take at least. 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: How did you break into the cannabis market and find success, especially as an athlete in that space?

Ricky Williams: Yeah well, the biggest thing isn’t in cannabis because still to this point, if you really want to have a cannabis brand to be taken seriously, you have to be doing something before it becomes legal [laughs]… and so, that makes it tricky to have a brand. And I think to where I cornered the market is when it comes to sports athletes and cannabis, I’m probably the person that’s most known and so I had a head start as far as people knowing my story. It’s easy for them to make the connection between me and cannabis; some other guys who have been consuming it for a long time but kept it under wraps, you know? Either they’re not ready to come out publicly or people don’t take them seriously. So I see where it comes from in sports and athletics but the goal here really is about performance. And it’s about — because in any substance in any drug or whatever there’s a range of experiences. There’s people that abuse it and we have a lot of those negative stereotypes, but the one thing that we don’t talk about cannabis is the people who go to the next level because of it, you know? I think an artist, athletes because of the altered state have the ability to take their mind and their bodies and their abilities to that next level and that’s the part of cannabis that I’m excited about promoting and getting out to the world. So I think that we have a good start but I think cornering the market will be… I’ll recognize it because people will talk about cannabis differently, you know? They’ll talk about how in ways that it helped them get to that next level.

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Do you ever wonder how your NFL career might have been different if marijuana was more accepted during your playing days?

Ricky Williams: I do. I do that quite often but also part of it for me is there wouldn’t be the way it is right now at least in sports in football if it wasn’t for me. And so, it would’ve been nice if someone could come before me and made it a little bit easier [laughs], but I take pride in that I helped pry that door open and allow more players to have access to cannabis without being afraid of losing their career or reputation.

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: What’s the story behind that iconic ESPN The Magazine cover of you in a wedding dress with Coach Ditka?

Ricky Williams: [laughs] I was on the cover of ESPN the Magazine with Coach Ditka. That was the image of me wearing a wedding dress. It was all going around at the same time and so it was pretty clear that I had lost my mind! [laughs]… the timing of it does reek of Dennis vibes and around that time I got to meet Dennis for the first time and especially at that time, Dennis was an ICON. I met him at the Super Bowl right before I got drafted and we were walking down Collins and it was crazy — all those people there wanted to get a piece of Dennis. So I will say that I did love the fact that Dennis allowed his athletic ability to take him to other places; and he was known for his athletic ability but known for ‘more’. So I did resonate with that but the truth is, I’m not really not out there like Dennis, you know? I’m out there compared to the average football player but I’m not out there like Dennis. The idea came from Dan Le Batard. So Dan Le Batard and I got really close — he did a story for me at the end of my collegiate career and we just became friends and he was writing at the time for ESPN the Magazine and they said they wanted to put me on the cover. We went back and forth for a couple of weeks about what the cover should be and one day Dan called and said, “The idea that we came up with now is a wedding dress…”  And when he first said it, I didn’t think about Dennis. I just laughed because I thought it was funny and I thought that it was an interesting way to portray the trade that Ditka had initiated. So again, in the moment on the phone it was funny but, when we showed up at the photo shoot and I was trying to put on a wedding dress it started to dawn on me like, Okay. This is kind of uncomfortable… and then we’re back in the limo going back to the Saints’ facility with Coach Ditka and he looked at me and said, “Who the hell convinced you to put that wedding dress on?” And then I laughed and then I realized that, It’s not going to be received or be as funny to people as it was to me when I first started the idea… 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: What was the scene like in New Orleans when you were drafted, especially coming from California?

Ricky Williams: It was crazy because I signed with Master P before I got drafted. And then for me to get drafted to the team to the place where he’s from, you know? His whole camp was just down the road in Baton Rouge. So, it felt like family. I thought I had a lot of support there but it was a wild time because my preference obviously was to go to Green Bay or Cleveland where the only thing I had to focus on was football. But New Orleans? It’s a whole thing! I have to be honest, coming from California it took me a minute to get used to being in the South, you know? Especially New Orleans in the Deep South. But it took me a year to find my place but once I did, I really loved it. I really enjoyed it and I felt very much embraced by everybody there. 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: What was the cultural scene like when you joined the Dolphins compared to New Orleans?

Ricky Williams: It’s different though. Maybe the panhandling in Florida — Northern all the way up to Orlando it’s still kind of the South. But something about Southern Florida… It’s like a melting pot. You got people from all over the world, it’s so diverse. So yeah, I was warmed up but it’s a different kind of diversity because, you got Jamaicans, you got Haitians… you got a whole bunch of different types of people. In New Orleans it was kinda just black people and white people and there’s a “history” between ‘em [laughs] 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: What was it like playing for the Toronto Argonauts, and how did the CFL culture compare to the NFL?

Ricky Williams: I mean, it’s kind of all the jokes about Canadians are true; at least from my experience, they’re just really laid back. It was like watching a sitcom. Everybody was so nice and cool and part of the culture that I really appreciated, even though it’s only an hour and a half from Buffalo, it felt like America but you could tell that it’s a different country. And people didn’t take football so seriously. I mean, even in the Canadian Football League the way they have the schedule it’s guys that still have full time jobs and still be able to play in the league. So it kinda has the feel of a college. Guys were playing for not for so much the money but because they really loved what they were doing. I think my time in Toronto really helped me re -appreciate the game again. It was fun. I had a great time. 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: What was your experience like playing with the Baltimore Ravens, especially joining late in your career?

Ricky Williams: Yeah. My last year was in Baltimore. Football-wise, there’s no other. That’s a football town! The fans love it — Purple Fridays everybody’s sporting their Ravens gear; but I will say one of the most difficult things and I’m guessing this is in any sport, but it’s changing teams late in your career, you know? Because, it’s where you grow up where everybody knows you there’s a benefit of the doubt that they get you and when you take that to another team, you have to start all over again to a certain extent. You have to rebuild that certain reputation; so that part was challenging being in Baltimore because everybody was used to me in Miami but it was a great experience playing with Ed Reed and Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata… playing with really good football players and again, being in that organization the Ravens really do great job of taking care of their players. 

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Is Ray Lewis as intense off the field as he is during games?

Ricky Williams: There’s a couple of spots in Miami. A couple of spots in New Orleans and DEFINITELY some spots in Austin, Texas. But it’s interesting, you know what I’m sayin’? Because as a kid, I used to think that fame didn’t last forever but in real life, it’s generational, you know? Thank God for YouTube because kids can go back and watch videos. But there’s something about people watching you play in person that really affects fame. So there are a couple of places but I find as I get older, those places become less and less.

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Is there anywhere you still travel to where you can get a free meal because of your NFL days?

Ricky Williams: There’s a couple of spots in Miami. A couple of spots in New Orleans and DEFINITELY some spots in Austin, Texas. But it’s interesting, you know what I’m sayin’? Because as a kid, I used to think that fame didn’t last forever but in real life, it’s generational, you know? Thank God for YouTube because kids can go back and watch videos. But there’s something about people watching you play in person that really affects fame. So there are a couple of places but I find as I get older, those places become less and less.

Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Are you interested in getting back on television to share your story and message?

Ricky Williams: I mean, I would like to get the word out but honestly, I don’t really like television that much, you know? Maybe in the future but I don’t know. I just find out on television there’s always an expectation to be a certain way. But it’s a great medium for getting the word out, I just think that there’s a level of “fakeness” that comes along with television.  

What you take away from a conversation with Ricky Williams depends on how closely you are listening. There is a calm wisdom in his voice, a clarity that has been sharpened by reflection and growth. As much as this Q&A was about football, it was just as much about life, identity, and how outside perception can influence or misrepresent the person underneath the helmet.

In today’s NFL, players are praised for being multi-dimensional, socially conscious, and unafraid to speak their truths. Ricky was all of that long before it was widely accepted. Whether you view him through the lens of sports, wellness, or entrepreneurship, his journey is a study in authenticity. His rise, fall, and renewal in the public eye shows how personal transformation is possible and powerful.

Ricky’s move into the cannabis industry was not just a career change. It was about healing, for himself and for others. He did not just start a business. He became a teacher, advocate, and pioneer for an industry still fighting for full legitimacy. This chapter in his life feels like a redemption arc, not from failure, but from misunderstanding.

As for football, Ricky does not carry bitterness. He speaks with appreciation and curiosity. He wonders what might have been if today’s NFL had existed during his prime. Not in a longing way, but in a way that shows how much he has learned and how comfortable he is with where he is now.

From Texas to Toronto, from ESPN covers to cannabis companies, Ricky Williams has lived a life that many might not understand. But that is part of the beauty of his story. Sometimes the game is not the whole story. Sometimes it is just the start.