King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Ricky Williams isn't a punk for following his bliss: The readers write.
July 28, 2004 | Something happened on Monday that's never happened to me before: I wrote a column, and when the e-mail started rolling in, it was unanimously negative. Unanimous! If the people of this great and divided country can agree on one thing, it's that I was wrong about Ricky Williams.
Even when I've written about Lance Armstrong and received hundreds of invective-filled notes, there's always been a few in there saying, "Right on." Not this time. Unanimous. A few more trickled in on Tuesday. The count -- unofficially, as they say on TV, meaning I didn't count too carefully -- was 62 letters against, two backing me, and three that commented on the issue without expressing an opinion about what I'd said.
What I'd said was that Williams, whom I've always enjoyed for his iconoclasm, disappointed me with his self-absorbed, narcissistic behavior in the timing and method of his retirement over the weekend. Just another me-first athlete, I wrote. I also called him a punk, which a couple of readers specifically objected to. I sort of regret using that word. A little. I just can't think of a better one.
Rather than print a long string of letters, I've cobbled together an All-Star letter, since the sentiments expressed were so nearly unanimous. Some letters expressed all of these points, some only one or two of them. But what follows, excerpted from various notes, is a representation of almost every e-mail I got:
"There are things in life more important than football and a man's happiness surely ranks among them. Furthermore, important life decisions don't always coincide nicely with the NFL schedule.
"Many Salon readers would be disappointed if King Kaufman decided his happiness required him to retire from sportswriting, particularly at an 'important' time such as the World Series or Super Bowl. But to begrudge you for such a decision would be entirely selfish on the reader's part. Our judgment of Williams and his decision should be no different.
"If anyone should know all about 'me first' it is the owners who -- to their credit -- make billions of dollars running an NFL with next to no guaranteed contracts for the players. It's a tough world, and in that world Ricky Williams was an employee, nothing more or less. He doesn't owe anybody anything.
"It's only training camp that's about to start, not the season. So the Dolphins have to make a roster move? Big deal. Given how overused Williams was, the Dolphins should have been prepared to replace him if he went down with an injury anyway. And his teammates hated him and wouldn't be in such a fix now if they just played better."
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