Former Texas running back and Heisman-winner told the OG’s Podcast that his first 300-yard game was fueled by marijuana use.
By Leah Vann,
Sports Culture Reporter
Oct 31, 2024
It’s no secret that former Texas Heisman trophy winner and NFL running back Ricky Williams liked to smoke some dope.
But in a recent interview with The OG’s, a podcast hosted by former NBA players Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller on the DraftKings Network, Williams revealed that it played a role in his 1998 Heisman season.
Miller begins the discussion by mentioning that he heard that Williams had rushed for 300 yards the first two games after he began consistently smoking marijuana.
Williams then explains that while he had tried smoking marijuana a few times, he had not ever been a consistent smoker before his senior year. But the story that Williams tells is true — the moment he started smoking, he noticed a difference in his overall performance on the field.
“I think the other side (of marijuana) needs advocacy,” Williams said on the podcast. “When I was growing up, the only images I saw people consuming was just Snoop (Dogg) and people getting in trouble. But we talked about that experience in college: that was the first time where I could see the before and after and no one could take that result away from me.”
At the beginning of the 1998 season, Williams was not putting up the numbers of a player who could’ve turned pro as a junior and was a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. That included a game against Kansas State where he rushed for 43 yards on 25 carries and no touchdowns.
Williams began to have regrets about returning for his senior season.
“And my roommate was like, ‘You need to chill,’ and he was a smoker, so he slid his bong over, and I took two hits, coughed and went upstairs,” Williams said. “It was the first time in two weeks I wasn’t obsessed about all the bad stuff and my mind started thinking about: ‘Ok, we have practice tomorrow.’ I had a wonderful week of practice and that next game, I think I had 312 yards, and the following, I had 350. I was back in the Heisman race.”
That included a 318-yard, six-touchdown performance against Rice and a 350-yard, 5-touchdown performance against Iowa State, according to ESPN. Williams’ 350-yard game remains the school record for most rushing yards in a single game, and 20th all-time in the NCAA.
Marijuana had helped the young running back focus and became a part of his routine. Every day, Williams said, he’d smoke when he came home from practice, but not enough to trigger a positive drug test. He did fail once, but it didn’t become a problem until he started his NFL career, where his repeatedly failed drug tests resulted in serving multiple suspensions.
Williams was later diagnosed with social anxiety, which made sense, as he was the only player who insisted on doing interviews with a helmet on throughout his career.
To this day, Williams is a staunch advocate of the benefits of cannabis for NFL players, and in 2022, the league donated $1 million to a study researching potential pain management benefits and neuroprotection of cannabis for players.
Pain management, Williams says later in the podcast, also played a huge role in his reasons for smoking marijuana. He was taking eight Advil per day just to be able to practice. But that had to stop when he got a stomach ulcer during his junior season. The doctor told him it was from taking too much ibuprofen.
“When you take a toradol or indomethacin, you go out on the practice field… I’m telling you, I felt like I was 15 years old those days,” Williams said. “If I didn’t take one, I felt like I was 80 years old. I didn’t question them, but after I got that ulcer, I started to open my mind to different things.”
During his senior year, Williams explored the idea of quitting painkillers and just using marijuana. He didn’t know it served medicinal purposes as well.
“I wanted to see how long I can go in-season without taking pills,” Williams said. “When I first failed a drug test, I tried to stop, but I got to the point where it’s like: ‘I don’t know if I want to do this if I can’t smoke.'”
Williams ranks third all-time in the NCAA for career rushing yards with 6,279, and is tied for fourth overall in career rushing touchdowns (72). And despite a tumultuous NFL career, Williams is second on the Miami Dolphins’ list of all-time rushing leaders with 6,436 yards rushing through 93 games.
So, marijuana did help.
“It’s hard to allow yourself to enjoy something that you’re not supposed to be doing,” Williams said. “I think the more people that just come out and tell the truth about their experiences —I think we’re going to see a change.”