By PETER KERASOTIS
Florida Today

Ignore everything you've read and heard. Ricky Williams did not retire.

Call this breaking news, a scoop, this just in, or any other hackneyed media phrase you can conjure.

Just know this: Ricky Williams did not retire.

He quit.

There is a difference.

Just ask his teammates ... er, his ex-teammates.

Miami coach Dave Wannstedt obviously was still stunned Sunday, two days after the Dolphins' best player told him he was going to walk, not run, away from the game.

"I was completely surprised, totally surprised," Wannstedt said, adding that Williams had been in great shape and had been at every offseason camp, practice and meeting.

"Would you come in and run windsprints in 90-degree temperature?" Wannstedt asked rhetorically, his voice trailing off into frustration.

Yes, he was stunned. And angry, too, though he didn't show it, nor would he comment on being angry when he was specifically questioned.

But of course he was angry. Who wouldn't be? The fallout for Wannstedt is that he might lose his job at the end of the season.

No, you just don't do this to people.

You don't do this to an owner who has paid you millions and has a contractual agreement with you that runs through 2006. Or a coaching staff that has staked their careers on you. Or fans who have showered you with adulation and, ultimately, were the ones who made you a wealthy man.

Most of all, you don't do this to your peers, your teammates.

You don't just quit - not retire, quit - just days before the start of training camp.

Even in my business, it's sort of an unwritten code of ethics that once August arrives, you don't take another job until after football season ends. Maybe there's something like that in your industry, too. There are times when you just don't leave a job. Here's another unwritten rule: If a company pays to move you, you should at least stay for a year.

Right?

Just two seasons ago, the Dolphins paid for Williams with two first-round draft picks. I'm guessing they figured they'd get more than two seasons of football in return.

In the only interview he's done, Williams told the Miami Herald he'd been contemplating this for months.

Months?

And you quit - not retire, quit - now, at the most inopportune 11th hour possible.

Had Williams done this just a few days ago, the Dolphins could have made a pitch for former Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George. Not only has George been a 1,000-yard type back in seven of his eight NFL seasons, including this past one, but he's also a bruising, physical runner that could have segued into the Dolphins' offensive scheme with minimal hitches.

Heck, Antowain Smith was also available. He went to the Titans once George took his leave and signed with Dallas.

Earlier in the offseason, Corey Dillon was available.

There were options. Even just a few days ago, there were options.

Now there's just a gaping hole and a million questions, neither of which will be filled nor answered adequately.

Oh, there are some running backs still floating around. Guys like Stacey Mack, James Stewart, Trung Canidate and Dorsey Levens.

None, it goes without saying, are Ricky Williams.

None, it also goes without saying, are quitters, either.

But don't expect anyone to carry the ball a league-leading 392 times next season, or be the Dolphins' second leading receiver with 50 catches. And, of course, don't expect anyone to rush for 3,225 yards over the next two seasons.

That Williams no longer wants to play football is immaterial, really. Sure he has that prerogative. Certainly, he's not the first athlete to walk away when they were still in their prime. Great ones like Jim Brown and Barry Sanders, at just 30 and 31, respectively, did so. Williams is 27.

Walk away if you want to. It's just the timing of it all. Miami's training camp opens Saturday. When your decision impacts so many other lives, then sometimes doing the right thing means putting your desires second. In Williams' case, that would've meant doing what he admits to having seriously contemplated, which is play one more season and then retire.

But instead of choosing that, instead of choosing to be selfless, Williams opted for selfish.

In his interview with the Herald, Williams said he didn't like that the NFL restricts its players from smoking marijuana. He said he'd gotten around NFL drug tests by drinking some special liquid concoction he claims many NFL players drink before drug tests.

"Human beings aren't supposed to be controlled and told what to do," he said. Elsewhere in the interview, he stated, "I'm finally free."

So now he'll be free to smoke pot till his lungs turn brown. He'll also be free to pursue other things now important to him. He wants to do everything and nothing.

Fine.

He can go ride camels and climb mountains and settle on something more meaningful in life than carrying an oblong ball.

That shouldn't be hard to do.

Maybe somewhere along the way, he will find the meaning of life. If he does, he'll find that honor and commitment are among the first definitions.

Perhaps then the realization will hit him that he didn't retire.

He quit.

Career statistics

Year	Team	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TD	Fum.
1999	NO	253	884	3.5	2	6
2000	NO	248	1,000	4.0	9	6
2001	NO	313	1,245	4.0	6	8
2002	MIA	383	1,853	4.8	17	7
2003	MIA	392	1,372	3.5	10	7

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