‘It wouldn’t be bad’: Injured Argo likes life in T.O.
By Sean Fitz-Gerald,
National Post
MISSISSAUGA – Ricky Williams has broken his arm, shredded his heel on a metal door and spent untold hours crammed inside a hyperbaric chamber since his summer vacation in the Canadian Football League began three months ago.
And he wouldn’t mind coming back.
The 29-year-old running back is expected to return to the Miami Dolphins next season after serving his suspension from the 2006 NFL campaign. But he has entertained the notion of possibly returning to the Toronto Argonauts whenever his playing days in the United States are finished, citing Argos coach Michael (Pinball) Clemons as an example he would like to follow.
“I was thinking it wouldn’t be bad to come back up here and kind of follow the same steps as Pinner — play here a couple years and maybe get a chance to coach up here,” Williams said yesterday. “Because I really like Toronto, I really like this organization … you can live here, you know? You feel like you have a life.
“I come to work, I go home, play with my kid, walk to the store. It’s really nice. I get to teach. It’s wonderful here.”
Williams has received more time than expected to explore his new surroundings since breaking his left forearm during a game late last month in Regina. The fractured radius bone was expected to keep him out from four to eight weeks, and was soon complemented with a ragged gash near his Achilles tendon that required 17 or 18 stitches to close.
He cut himself on a metal door inside the team’s suburban dressing room, and was sent to a clinic in St. Catharines to undergo intensive hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Williams spent more than four hours a day inside a glass and metal tube breathing 100% pure oxygen in a bid to prevent infection in the heel, though he has not been told whether that will allow him to return to the lineup any faster.
“The doctors haven’t really told me, and I wouldn’t believe them, anyway,” he said. “They say it’s going to be longer, but I say it’s probably shorter.”
Williams broke his arm on the artificial turf in Regina while trying to regain his balance on July 22. He had surgery the following night and later told reporters he could miss up to eight weeks, which would place his return in Week 15, when the Argos play in Calgary on Sept. 23.
John Avery has reclaimed his role as starter in the meantime and ran for 94 yards and a touchdown in last weekend’s win over the Montreal Alouettes. Avery has challenged the coaching staff to play Williams and him in the same backfield whenever the 2002 NFL rushing champion returns to action.
Williams was not wearing a cast on his arm as he watched practice yesterday, nor was he sporting any kind of limp that might have been left over from the gash on his foot. But his fastest movements were still restricted to those following the workout, when he darted to the front of the line at a team-run barbeque set up next to the field.
Most players chose sausages and hamburgers, but Williams opted for a veggie burger. The cookout was held in conjunction with the team’s Stop the Violence campaign. Williams signed autographs, posed for pictures and advised one of the children in attendance to start drinking water and juice instead of cola.
“Ricky is special,” Argos president Keith Pelley said. “He’s a fantastic person with great morals and values. Loves Toronto, loves the Canadian Football League, loves Pinball … after his NFL career is over, we would of course entertain [the thought] of him coming back.”
