Ricky Williams

I stepped away to find out more about myself, which I was having difficulty doing as a football player. I got a chance to travel the world. I studied Eastern philosophy, and I've grown as a person so much.

Anytime you play a team sport, the success of the team really makes everything better. It's nice.

Sometimes success will get in the way of maturity - at least temporarily.

There's more to life than success, and if you can try to be more well-rounded, you'll be able to enjoy your success more. It won't own you or control you.

I want to thank all my fans, teammates, coaches and supporters for the strength they've given me to overcome so much.

I realized a while back that I have an innate ability to be compassionate, and I saw that the strength of compassion is something that healers have and healers use.'

I think sometimes when it comes to sports, and especially relationships between players and coaches, that people lose track, lose a sense of reality.

And I think if you look at any relationship, for the relationship to be productive and to move forward and to grow, sometimes things have to be said that one person or the other person is not going to like to hear.

I don't think I'll ever be able to stay in one place for more than a year or two. It's not in my nature.

I started practicing yoga. I started learning some hands-on healing stuff. And I found really good chiropractors, really good massage therapists, and what I found is I've been able to actually peel off layers of trauma on my body and actually move better now than I did.

I would drive home and see people wearing my No. 34 jersey and wonder why, because I didn't feel worthy of that. And all the time I just knew people were staring at me, talking about me everywhere I went.

Texas was such a welcoming place, and with its unbelievable history and tradition, it's extra special to be a part of that.

I've gotten to a point, where I realize that happiness doesn't come from the outside.

Well, I am now convinced there is no kind of fear or anxiety anyone has to live with.

I think I have a tendency to look at things subjectively rather than objectively when I reflect on my experience.

When you make that crossover from life to real life, when you're not treated as a child anymore but as a man, and you are no longer given the benefit of the doubt, it takes some courage to face that.

I don't think people change. I think they definitely mature. But I think the essence of what I am today is the same as when I was five years old. It's just maturity. I've become a healthier, fuller expression of that essence.

To talk about balance, it's easier to talk about what's out of balance. And I think anytime that you have any disease, and disease meaning lack of ease, lack of flow... dis-ease. So any time there's disease, you're out of balance, whether it's jealousy, anger, greed, anxiety, fear.

The NFL has been an amazing page in this chapter of my life. I pray that all successive adventures offer me the same potential for growth, success and most importantly fun.