Would You Let Ricky Williams Massage Your Head?

Ricky Williams is no longer searching for enlightenment in the bottom of a water bong. Oh, he still wants enlightenment, but now he's looking for it in a second career as a holistic healer.

Williams is spending his offseason studying at an acupuncture and massage college, conveniently located in a Kendall, Florida, strip mall. It's all part of his larger goal to find spiritual balance through holistic healing. He's studied yoga and meditation in India and is making plans to become an osteopathic doctor after football. Oh, and he's off the dope now so let it go, you jackals!

The main purpose of this is to show that Williams may still be a hippy-dippy man, but that he doesn't have to toke up on the skunk weed to find a little peace. (OK, the Times didn't use the words "skunk weed." That was mine.)

"Since I've become famous for it, I'm amazed at how many people ask me to smoke," Williams said. "For me to move on with my career, this has to be behind me. I don't want to keep being reminded of it on a daily basis."

So Ricky's moved on from the pot, discovering things like Hindu medicine and craniosacral therapy. (Which is no joke, by the way. I've had that done on me and it cleared up a lifetime of sinus problems.) He's a believer in the "healing power of touch" and his dream is to someday be an NFL "shaman" curing players—mind, body, soul—with his beautiful hands. Good for him. I just hope the players he's taking care of don't ask for a little mary jane to the cut the edge off, man.

Ricky Williams Is Hoping to Heal Others, and His Image [NY Times]