—36— O’Shaughnessy’s • Spring 2005 “I have a much easier time fitting in in Oakland.” Ricky Williams Does “60 Minutes”

Mike Wallace and his producer did MW: (as narrator): The real reason When we’re living in harmony with our is it okay to not play football? their best to ridicule and incite jealousy he left, he told us, was to avoid the pub- environment, our bodies naturally ex- MW: Maybe if you’d given them a towards Ricky Williams on “60 Minutes” lic humiliation over news that he had just press themselves in the form of health. clue ahead of time. during an interview that aired Dec. 20, failed a drug test —his third failed drug (Cut to a tight shot of Ricky’s back be- RW: I didn’t know ahead of time or I 2004 —but they could not bring him test. ing lathered and stroked by two beauti- would have given them a clue. It hap- down. RW: All right, here’s what happened, ful women. Long, sensual strokes guar- pened in the course of two days, boom MW: We’re about to tell you a very okay? The thing I had the most trouble anteed to inspire jealousy in some and/ boom boom boom. strange story about a football superstar with was, after you fail your third test, it or a desire to enroll ASAP in the MW: Since you quit... name of Ricky Williams. He won the becomes public knowledge that you Ayurvedic Institute.) RW (correcting him): Retired -I’m Heisman trophy in 1998 as the best foot- failed the test. And that’s one thing I MW (voice over): Receiving this mas- only kidding, I’m only kidding. ball player in the couldn’t deal with at sage is part of his training to become an MW: Well, have you retired or did country. (Cut to the time —people Ayurvedic masseur. you quit? footage of Will- knowing that I Halpern: The specific hand strokes RW: I retired from that lifestyle. iams running in smoked marijuana. in order to balance the various energies (Exterior shot of a cozy country cot- the open field — MW: So the prob- of the body And it’s very calming and tage.) misleading in that lem with failing your soothing and nourishing for the mind. MW: He’s renting a one-bedroom his job mainly in- third NFL drug test And he’s following the whisperings of house in Grass Valley, California, with volved slamming was that it would be his soul as opposed to the shouting of his no TV, no long-distance phone and no straight into the made public? own ego. It’s our ego that desires the regrets. Do you like yourself? line.) Then five RW: That was my fame and the fortune. It’s the whisper- RW: I love myself. years of glory in biggest fear of my ings of the soul that lead us towards the MW: You do? Why? the NFL. He car- whole entire life. I was scared to death pursuit of harmony, the pursuit of health RW: Because I’m all that I have and ried the ball more often over the last two of that. and well being. Including sometime fac- if I don’t love myself, no one else will. seasons than any other player in the MW (narrating): So rather than face ing the consequences of letting go of the MW: You don’t dislike anything in league! (Said as if it was some honor the the music and the media about his failed fame and fortune. yourself? ingrate didn’t appreciate instead of a drug test, he quit football and ran away, MW: Fact is, Williams has gone from RW: Whenever I feel myself starting speed-up that any self-respecting worker far far away, to Australia, where he lived fortune to deep debt. And from fame to to dislike something I tell myself, “This would have resisted.) And he made mil- in a tent community that cost him just infamy. The Dolphins claim he owes is who I am,” so what’s the point in dis- lions doing it for the Miami Dolphins as seven dollars a day. them more than 8 million dollars —much liking it? the team’s star player. RW (over shot of a tent): In my tent more money than he has— for leaving MW: You can’t pay that 8 million dol- But then, just before Dolphins train- I had about 30 books. Every morning I’d in the middle of his contract. His sudden lars that you’re supposed to pay. (Mock- ing camp this past July, he turned his back wake about five in the morning and I’d departure just days before training camp ing Williams’ high tenor) “Hey, I’m on all of it —the stardom, the fame, the take my flashlight and I’d read for a doomed the Dolphins to their worst sea- Ricky! I can just go through life the way salary of five million dollars a year. His couple of hours. son in franchise history and infuriated his I want to go.” sudden decision to quit stunned his team- MW: Books about what? former fans and especially his team- RW: Let’s look at the alternative, all mates, infuriated fans, and ruined the RW: Everything from nutrition to mates. (Undoubtedly some of Williams’s right? If every day I woke up and I said, Dolphins’ entire season. He never really Buddhism to Jesus. I was trying to fig- teammates and fans understood and re- “God, I’ve got all this money to pay back, explained why he quit (actually Williams ure out, “What am I? What am I?” I just spected his decision, but Wallace got got all these problems,” I wouldn’t be sit- did explain to Dave Le Batard of the Mi- kept reading and reading and couldn’t away with the overstatement.) ting here with you with a smile on my ami Herald, but why not claim the scoop figure out what I was but I learned a lot. Dolphins tackle Larry Chester says, face right now. for CBS?) and he has stayed out of pub- MW: It was there he learned about “Ricky owes lots of people an apology. MW: Why are you smiling? lic view for the past six months (except an ancient healing science from India Not just the fans, but a lot of guys in the RW: Because I’m happy. for the interview he gave Tom FitzGerald called Ajurveda. locker room.” Do you want to apologize MW: And the people who are angry of the San Francisco Chronicle). But wait RW: It’s using nature to heal your- to them right now? at you because you deserted them? Be- till you see what he’s doing now... self, to put yourself in balance. RW: If I can find a reason to apolo- trayed them. That doesn’t bother you? (An Om-like chant is heard. Wide shot MW: Are you in balance now? gize then I’d love to apologize. And if RW: No, because I did. of Ricky and fellow students seated on RW: I’m more in balance now than I they want me to apologize just to apolo- MW: Deserted and betrayed? mats.) He’s studying holistic medicine in was a couple of months ago, but it’s a gize, then I’ll apologize. But it doesn’t RW: To them I did, yeah. the California hills outside Sacramento journey that people spend their whole mean anything unless I understand what MW: Do you care about what people where, surprisingly, he agreed to answer lives on. I’m apologizing for. think who are looking in? any questions we asked about how, at the MW: What’s balance? MW (as if it’s all real simple): You’re RW: No. peak of his earning power, he could just RW: It’s easier to talk about what’s apologizing for letting them down. The MW: Right now. walk away. out of balance. Anytime you have any Dolphins thought with you, and mainly RW: No Ricky Williams: My whole thing in disease —meaning lack of ease, lack of with you, that they had a chance at the MW: This is from a Sporting News life is I just want freedom. I thought that flow— you’re out of balance, whether columnist: “Ricky has always been one money would give me that freedom. I it’s jealousy, anger, greed, anxiety, fear. Super Bowl. of the most selfish, unpredictable, pur- was wrong. MW: And you’ve had experience in RW: What if I posely bizarre and more than slightly off MW: Why were you wrong? all of the above. disagree, do I still kilter athletes. He doesn’t care how his RW: Because especially when you’re RW: I’ve had a little bit of all of it - have to apologize? behavior might affect anyone around 21 and you’re given as much money as I most people have. MW (momen- him. It has always been about Ricky.” Re- was given... MW: This fall he enrolled in an 18- tarily confused; he action? MW: How much were you given? month course at the California College is accustomed to RW: Half of it’s accurate. But how RW: At 21 I received my first check, of Ayurveda. Free from the structured asking the ques- can I expect him, if I don’t know any- it was 3.6. life of the NFL, he’s immersed now in thing about him, to really know anything MW: Million. (Shots of Ricky and other students on tions, not being asked): If you disagree about me. RW: (nodding) Before taxes. After mats) the search for his soul. MW: Which half is accurate? Want taxes it was 2.4. RW: Playing in the National Foot- When would it have been okay to hear it again? MW: Oh, poor fellow. ball League you’re told where to be, for me to stop playing football? RW: Can I see it in print? RW: It bound me more than it freed when to be there, what to wear, how to When my knees went out? When Wallace (hands over the page he was me, because now I had more things to be there. Being able to step away from my shoulders went out? When I reading from): Sure. Read it aloud. worry about, more people asking for that I have an opportunity to look deeper RW (after reading the harsh words money, I thought I had to buy a house into myself and look for what’s real. had two concussions? aloud): He got the name right. I mean, I and nice cars and different things that (Cut to Dr. Mark Halpern, who runs with? am unpredictable but who —what— is people with money are supposed to do. the Institute, a sent-from-central-casting RW: That I cost them their season. supposed to be predictable? MW: And you did not find that sat- California guru with a trim beard and a MW: (displeased, almost sneering): MW (reading again): This is more isfying? soothing voice. Even in slacks and a Oh, come on, Ricky. from him: “You know the type. They RW: No, it just created more prob- jacket he appears to be wearing draw- RW: I played my butt off. I played fancy themselves as shining knights in a lems. string pants.) as hard as I could when I put that uni- dull world, they try to be unique. Instead MW: You would have made five mil- Halpern: I see burn-out in probably form on, but I’m not doing that anymore, of looking brave, they look foolish.” lion bucks this year. You said, “It’s blood 60 to 70 percent of society at any given you know, I’ve moved on. So when is it RW: I look very foolish, that’s accu- money as far as I’m concerned. The time. okay for me to stop playing foot— When rate. To a lot of people I look foolish in money is what made me miserable. I MW: Halpern says Ricky is study- would it have been okay for me to stop what I’m doing and I understand that. want to be free of that stress.” Forgive ing to become an holistic healer. playing football? When my knees went MW: And it doesn’t bother you at all? me, but that’s bulls—. Halpern: He will help individuals to out? When my shoulders went out? When RW: No, the only thing that matters RW: It is bullshit. I agree. When live in greater harmony with their envi- I had two concussions? When would it is how I feel and if I let how they feel ronment through all five of their senses. hearing you say that, I agree, it is... have been okay? I’m just curious? When continued on next page O’Shaughnessy’s • Spring 2005 —37— Society Notes Dennis Peron Will Run English Hotel By Fred Gardner tive lobbying at City Hall for a medical Dennis Peron, the founder of the San the prospective manager. “I told them marijuana card program run by the Dept. Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club and the we’re going to have to serve pancakes.” of Public Health (Wayne got card #1), and prime mover behind Prop 215, has ac- Dennis’s Pomeranian, Pinky Lee, al- now Prop S to involve the city in cultiva- cepted a job offer to run an old hotel in ready has had a chip implanted (proof tion and/or distribution. Dartmouth, England. It’s owned by of a rabies shot, a requirement for bring- In 2000 Wayne made a serious effort George San Martin, who in the late ’70s ing a dog into the UK). They leave on to organize club proprietors, growers, and worked at the Big Top, a marijuana dis- July 12. patient advocates into a political action pensary run out of Dennis’s Castro Street In recent years Dennis turned his group. His “consortium” never coalesced, flat. house on 17th Street into a B&B of sorts, but the monthly meetings he and Randi George was a small, wiry man — renting out rooms via Craig’s list for $60 Webster held at 350 Divisadero fostered Mexican, with Indian features and thick a night. Some people may be surprised a sense of community and enabled people black hair which he wore long. He to learn that his vow of poverty was for to keep abreast of legal and political de- moved to London at the end of the ’70s real. Not long ago I rode in an elevator Former SFPD Chief Earl Saunders and velopments. and put his past encounters with law en- with a San Francisco narcotics officer Wayne Justmann at the launching of the forcement to good use. A lawyer hired who told me, as if he really knew, “Your San Francisco medical marijuana card The epidemic isn’t killing him to instruct newly arrested clients on friend Peron has a million dollars bur- progr program in April 2001. their rights and how to behave in cus- ied in a hole in Mexico.” I said, “I sure people overnight anymore. tody. This turned out to be a much- hope so.” years ago he trusted me and made me What a good reason for a party. needed specialty and George created a Wayne’s Whirl feel needed and introduced me to people... He’s just a great friend and fun business of his own. He did well enough Dennis gave us the update at Club Wayne’s a name-dropper and a back- to be with.” to buy an old hotel in Dartmouth, a beach Cocomo, which was filled on Sunday slapper but he does it like he’s playing a Wayne’s contributions to the move- town in the southwest of England with night, Jan. 22, with more than 300 people part. He’s a big man, maybe 6’3, 225, ment/industry include security at relatively mild weather. “A navy town, celebrating Wayne Justmann’s 60th b- calm and friendly, like Alex Karras in Dennis’s Market Street club; co-creation the Penascola of the British Riviera,” day. Wayne’s friends include the poor “Victor Victoria.” Wayne was diagnosed of the Patients Resource Center at 350 according to Alexander Cockburn. and the powerless as well as the pols. positive in 1988 and here it is 2005 and Divisadero (urgently needed when Den- Dennis has seen a slide show depict- Everybody had come to have a good he looks hale and hearty. The epidemic nis was forced to close); campaign work ing the town — “so beautiful!” — and time. Nobody was selling anything. No- isn’t killing people overnight anymore. for Terence Hallinan and other pro-can- the hotel, Agincourt House, built in the body was there as a customer or a clerk. What a good reason for a party. nabis politicians; mediating internal dis- 13th century and restored in the 16th. “It There was gaiety in the air, and mutual Dennis had a long conversation with putes; making useful connections; effec- looks like the House of Pancakes,” says respect based on collective political ac- Ross Mirkarimi, the new supervisor complishment. It’s so rare that the class from the Haight/Inner Sunset. Wayne divisions seem to break down, even for says Mirkarimi has been very receptive a minute, and it sure feels good when to input from the movement. (He’s a they do. Green Party leader, and for sure the medi- Three cannabis club proprietors and cal marijuana issue could do wonders for a cultivator had picked up the tab for the Greens nationally.) food and entertainment. Party planner State Sen. Mark Leno read a procla- Michael Ramos had made all the mation honoring Wayne and Wayne raangements, and Rush and fmily of pointed to Dennis in the throng and called Club Cocomo had donated the space. him “the man who opened the door for “Wayne has done so much for the us...” The entertainment was anchored movement,” one of the organizers ex- by the Extra Action Marching Band and Dennis, Pinky Lee and Deputy AG Jane plained, “and he’s never been in it for Wayne with one of the party organizers, included a hard-not-to-dance-to rap act, Zack Simon, prosecutor of Tod Mikuriya, the money. When I first moved here three Erich P. at a meeting of the Medical Board in 2004. Los Marijuanos. continued on next page

Ricky Williams from previous page

affect me it’ll change how I feel. reggae star from Jamaica inspired Ricky RW: No. Thank God I never needed to be? MW: Another columnist: “To some to wear dreadlocks for years. But in Aus- that. RW: Alive. Williams is a selfish quitter. To others tralia, while he was off taking pictures, MW: Why? MW: You like what you’re doing here. he’s a hero who took his job and shoved Ricky cut them off. RW: I was gifted. I’m very blessed. I RW: I love what I’m doing here. it, leaving a brutal game before it brutal- RW: So I set up my tripod and started never needed anything to help me play MW: Why do you love it? ized him. To close friends, Williams is a taking some self-portraits. football. RW: Just because I’m doing whatever deep-thinking free spirit, who despised MW: And the dreadlocks got in the MW (hushed tone, as if discussing the I want to do. Like I said, I’ve followed the stereotype that came with football, way. sacred): Do you think you’ll ever play freedom for a long time and I finally feel fame and fortune.” RW: And the dreadlocks got in the football again? I’ve got more of it. RW (relieved): That’s a little more way so I ran up to the top of the hill, I RW: I have no idea. MW (wrapping it up): So for Ricky accurate. had scissors in my van, I cut my hair then MW: Oh, come on. Williams, money couldn’t buy happiness. MW: Got a girl? and there. RW: I really have no idea. I can’t even But he says that now he’s never been hap- RW: I have a daughter but I don’t MW: Beyond the dreadlocks, Will- tell you what’s going to happen tomor- pier. have a girlfriend. iams named one of his daughters row. RW: People talk about the money that MW: How come? “Marley,” and he and his hero have some- MW: I’ll make you a bet. You’ll play I’ve given up and the money that I’ve lost. RW: Just haven’t found anyone that thing else in common... (to Ricky) He football again. But the knowledge and the wisdom that fits the bill. used hash. RW: Okay. What are we going to put I’ve gotten from this experience is price- MW: And the bill is? RW: He smoked a lot of marijuana, —what’s the wager? less. So, the way I look at it I’m still way, RW: I’ll know when they fit it. yeah. MW (Surprised that Williams took way, way up. Way, way up. MW: Never married? MW: And you’ve done the same. him literally): You don’t care about RW: Never married. But I have three RW: I have done the same. money. children. MW: Could you pass an NFL drug RW: We could bet dinner, lunch. Why Although Williams was once a spokes- MW: What about the mothers of test today? do you think I’ll play football again? man for Paxil, Wallace —an unabashed those three. They’re all different. RW: No. MW: Because I think that you will shill for pharmaceutical antidepressants— RW: They’re all different. They’re all MW: So you still smoke marijuana. want to have the freedom that you have didn’t ask whether he still uses Glaxo’s special. RW: Mmm-hmm. now but you’re going to need more SSRI and, if not, when and why he quit? MW: Do you support the mothers of MW: Anything worse than mari- money to have the freedom that you now How Paxil compares with marijuana? these children? juana? have. You’ve said that you might like to How much Pfizer paid him? When and RW: Financially. Yes. (still smiling RW: Worse? What do you mean by play for the Oakland Raiders. why he severed his relationship? And but understanding Mike’s drift) Of course worse? RW: I did say that. other questions that would have been I do! I’m a very generous person. At least MW (annoyed by the question): More MW: And Raider fans like weirdos meaningful to millions of viewers but dis- I try to be. addictive. More dangerous, conceivably. like you. tasteful to CBS’s drug-company sponsors. MW: Who’s your hero, if any? RW: Sometimes I have sweets. RW: I have a much easier time fit- Wallace’s attitude going into the inter- RW: I would say Bob Marley, prob- (Wallace doesn’t react) Sugar. ting in in Oakland. view may have been cynical and biased, ably. MW: (sarcastic) Oh, I see, yeah. MW (narrating): He did admit that but he was won over by Williams’ intelli- (Cut to footage of Marley in perfor- RW: Sometimes I’ll have a glass of from time to time he still misses the gence and openness during the course of mance.) wine, but that’s about it. game. (Cut back to the interview) You’re their encounter, according to a New York MW: Bob Marley, the legendary MW: Steroids? 27. When you’re 50, what do you want media source.