By Zack Cimini

Ricky Williams made an abrupt exit from football, and who can be shocked from it? The Miami Dolphins and the football world, but in all reality why shouldn?t he retire? Football is a very rough contact sport and when you think about it the average running back lasts five years in the league. He played at a high level for five years, and definitely took a beating as he was always at the top of the league in carries.

Why play football and continue to take a beating for another six to eight years? Eventually all your hard work is going to be thrown down the drain? As your body breaks down so will your fans and your job security. Just like what happened with Emmitt Smith, Jerome Bettis, Thurman Thomas, Terrell Davis, etc will continue to happen to running backs.

After five years in the league Williams has more than enough money to live on. People want to blame it on his use of marijuana and what not, but if you had more than enough money financially why not enjoy it? He has left the game with nothing a short career and little notoriety, and in two or three years no one will even be mentioning his name. You can only have so much money in life, and Williams is choosing to enjoy it right now. At almost 28 years old, he has left the game on two feet in great health.

Tacklers in the NFL are getting bigger and stronger, and that is evident on the field on any given Sunday. Ricky Williams is not the only running back to mention retiring from the game early. Edgerrin James has also expressed interest in retiring, as he said last summer that he might only play another few years.

What Williams did is only going to become more of a trend that was originally started by Barry Sanders. The same bog that Miami is in now is the same problem Detroit had. Can you think of a running back that has been successful in Detroit since Sanders left? It?ll be hard for Miami to do much this year without Ricky, but you never know who could emerge with the opportunity. It is better that Williams made the decision to retire than to go out on the field just to earn a check. All player?s care about is CTC and the love of the game is becoming less and less.