Ricky Williams Retirement: Veteran RB Retires After 11 Seasons in NFL

Baltimore Ravens running back Ricky Williams has retired from professional football, and it looks like this time, it’s for real.

On Tuesday, The 34-year-old Williams announced that he won’t be back to fulfill the second year of a contract he signed with the Ravens in August.

“The NFL has been an amazing page in this chapter of my life,” Williams said of his current retirement in an official statement. “I pray that all successive adventures offer me the same potential for growth, success and most importantly, fun.”

Playing as a backup to Ray Rice this year, Williams ran for 444 yards, 2 touchdowns, and also became the 26th player in NFL history to reach 10,000 yards rushing, reaching the plateau in the season finale at Cincinnati.

“As a young player, you need to be around a guy who knows what he is doing, and Ricky was tremendous to learn from, Rice said in a statement to ESPN. “The way he took care of his body and the way he prepared, he always showed that he is a true professional.”

A Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Texas, Williams was a 1999 first round pick of the New Orleans Saints (under the helm of Mike Ditka), who famously traded their entire allotment of draft picks in order to move up in the first round to select Williams with the fifth pick.

He only lasted three sub-par years in New Orleans before being traded to the Miami Dolphins, where his career blossomed.

Williams led the NFL in 2002 with 1,853 yards rushing for the Dolphins and received his lone Pro Bowl invitation that season. He backed that up with 1,372 yards in 2003, giving him what remains the two most productive rushing seasons in Dolphins history.

Williams retired previously before the the start of the 2004 season when facing a four-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy. He returned in 2005, then left to spend the 2006 season with Toronto of the Canadian Football League.

Over the course of his 11-year career in the NFL Williams had five 1,000-yard rushing seasons and finished with 10,009 yards on the ground.

When asked about his post-NFL plans, Williams said:

“As for what’s next, I am excited about all the opportunities ahead — continuing my education, running The Ricky Williams Foundation and whatever other opportunities present themselves.”

ESPN’s Tim Hasselbeck and Darren Woodson discuss Ricky Williams’ NFL career and retirement in the video below: