As Saints fans will remember, the 1999 NFL draft was a memorable one.
New Orleans was coming off its second straight 6-10 season under head coach Mike Ditka, and before the draft, Ditka and the Saints brass pulled off one of the most amazing and stupefying feats in NFL history.
They traded all of the Saints picks in the 1999 draft as well as the team’s first- and third-round picks in the 2000 draft for one player.
That player was Errick Lynne Williams Jr., better known as Ricky. He’s the same Ricky Williams that retired in 2004 because he wanted to smoke marijuana and then returned in 2005 because he realized he would owe the Dolphins $8.3 million.
The same Ricky Williams who was suspended again after the 2005 season by the NFL and just gained reinstatement Nov. 14. Williams is still under contract with the Miami Dolphins.
But let’s take a look at history first.
Coming out of college, Williams was a highly touted running back who had just won the Heisman Trophy and was a two-time winner of the Doak Walker Award, which is given to the best running back in the NCAA each season.
Also at the time he finished college, Williams was the NCAA’s all-time leader in career rushing yards, touchdowns and scoring (all records no longer stand).
Was he worth all the draft picks that Ditka gave away? Well … judging by the team’s 3-13 record the following season and Williams’ only playing in 12 games that year because of injury, no, he wasn’t.
Ditka was fired after that season, and Williams rushed for 884 yards and two touchdowns. That’s good production for a rookie running back but not what was expected of him.
In 2000, Jim Haslett took over as head coach and led the Saints to a 10-6 record and the team’s first playoff victory. However, Williams wasn’t a large part of the push at the end of the season because he suffered an injury after just 10 games and finished the season with 1,000 yards.
The following season would be Williams’ best as a Saint, as he played in all 16 games and rushed for 1,245 yards, but the Saints had also drafted a running back named Deuce McAllister in that year’s draft, making Williams expendable as he hadn’t impressed Haslett as much as he had Ditka.
So, in the 2002 off-season, the Miami Dolphins traded for Williams, giving the Saints two first-round draft picks. In his first season with the Dolphins, he ran for 1,853 yards and 16 touchdowns, showing all that he could have been a top-notch back.
But soon after, Williams’ drug problems arose, and he was kicked out of the league.
But now, he’s making a comeback.
On Nov. 14 it was announced that Williams had met all criteria to re-enter the NFL, and it’s possible he will do so with the Dolphins. They still have him under contract and have lost starter Ronnie Brown for the season.
I wish Ricky all the best, and hopefully, he’ll do interviews without his helmet on this time.
