MIAMI — With another long layoff looming, Ricky Williams is already looking ahead to his latest comeback.
The Miami Dolphins running back faces a one-year suspension for his fourth violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy, but said he plans to play again.
Williams’ appeal of his latest failed drug test was rejected, the league announced Tuesday.
“I’m disappointed with the decision, but I respect it,” Williams said in a statement released by the team. “I’m proud of my association with the National Football League and look forward to returning to the Dolphins in 2007.”
Williams sat out the 2004 season after retiring shortly before training camp. He returned last year to play for new Miami coach Nick Saban.
If Williams does try to return next year, he’ll be 30 years old and will have played a total of only 12 games in the previous three seasons.
“Ricky is obviously disappointed,” said his agent, Leigh Steinberg. “He’ll need to work hard to get back to the league in 2007.”
Williams’ previous positive drug tests were for marijuana, which he acknowledged using. The latest test apparently involved a substance other than marijuana and may have been related to his interest in holistic medicine. Since his return last season, the NFL required Williams to undergo drug tests up to 10 times a month. He was in India studying yoga when news of his latest failed test surfaced in February.
Williams met with league counsel Jeff Pash on April 10 to appeal the result. He had been participating in the offseason training program at the Dolphins’ complex, and he was there working out Tuesday shortly before league announced the rejection of his appeal.
Saban repeatedly praised Williams’ conduct and performance last season and supported him in the appeal process.
“This is a league decision, and we are disappointed in what it means for Ricky and the team,” Saban said in a statement. “Ricky did an outstanding job for the Dolphins, not only as a player but also what he added as a person to the team’s chemistry and to our overall success.”
One sliver of good news for Saban is the timing of the decision: He now knows he’s in the market for a running back in the NFL draft this weekend to back up starter Ronnie Brown.
Williams ran for 743 yards last season, mostly as Brown’s backup.
The suspension represents a financial blow for Williams, who owes the Dolphins $8.6 million for breaching his contract when he retired in 2004. His return last season was motivated partly by the need for a paycheck.
Attorney David Cornwell represented Williams in his appeal.
“We raised substantial and legitimate issues arising out of the application of the NFL’s policy and program for substances of abuse,” Cornwell said in a statement. He urged the players’ union and ownership to “review the issues we raised on the appeal … and restore the original intention of the NFL’s policy to put equal focus on helping NFL players as is put on testing and suspending them.”
Last season, Williams laughingly described himself as weird and compared his career to a roller coaster. But he also dispelled his reputation as an aloof, selfish pothead, winning praise from teammates and winning the local media’s annual postseason Good Guy Award, given to the player most cooperative with reporters.
Williams won the 1998 Heisman Trophy at Texas, and the next year, New Orleans Saints coach Mike Ditka traded his team’s entire draft to acquire the running back. Williams wore a wedding dress for an infamous photo shoot with Ditka upon arriving in New Orleans, and the resulting backlash began to sour Williams’ three-year stay with the Saints.
The Dolphins made their biggest trade in more than 30 years to acquire him in 2002, giving up two first-round draft picks, and he won the NFL rushing title that season with 1,853 yards.