Ricky Williams's early retirement

So he quit to relax and smoke weed. That's what I'm reading right here. If we all didn't know that Ricky was retiring to smoke dope and be an idler, we'd see a much different response to his decision to get out early. More people would admire it.

A few years ago I had a meeting with a retirement counselor about how much I needed to put away every month. She asked, at what age would you like to retire? I said I don't know, 65 or 70, and she spit out her coffee. Most people say 50, she said. I'm young enough to not know what I'm talking about. Most of you people hope to retire early.

Football is such a brutal, body-destroying sport, I won't be surprised if early retirement doesn't become a lot more common among the highly-paid superstars. Barry Sanders was the first and Ricky Williams won't be the last. Seriously, once you had four million in the bank, would you play one more year and risk serious injury so you could retire with six million instead? How much is enough? I could retire right now on one million.

Free agency is still a pretty new thing in baseball and football. We haven't seen the last major change in the game that will be wrought by the rise of individualism among highly-paid American professionals. The middle of the twentieth century, with its memory of the Great Depression, its celebration of modest expectations, and its respect for stable careers and jobs that grew with the employee, was very kind to professional baseball and football. It was good for the team. Today, what could be more obsolete than the company man? In this era of looted pension plans, you're just a sucker - the most loathsome kind of fool - if you are so naive to think that your loyalty to one employer will be rewarded. The team player today is adept only at joining the ad hoc.

Considering that free agency was long overdue when it was first introduced, we can expect the rapid pace of related change to continue. There will be no more sports teams where the owners, front office people, and players all feel like one big family. That's gone forever. And the team concept will continue to erode. Especially as we pervert our appreciation of team sports with games like fantasy baseball or fantasy football.

The only thing that will preserve the tradition of single-team careers is a shortening of the average career. Some lucky and healthy baseball players will stick around into the 40s because the game can be so much easier on the body. And if the game and the travel become easy for you, why retire? If they don't have much health, however, why should the highly paid stick around into their 30s? Take Chipper Jones or Ken Griffey for example. Or J.D. Drew or, in a few years, Jose Reyes. How long will they stick around to risk further damage to their already crippled bodies?

Before long, guys like them will retire early to enjoy their money and their body in their wealthy retirement. Before long, football fans will expect players to retire after a few highly-paid years. And, when it's no longer shocking, the fans will idolize them for it. Because they, too, would do the same thing if given the chance.