Salaam Has Been Down Williams’ Path Before

He grew up in San Diego, won the Heisman Trophy, was a first-round draft pick projected to be a star running back in the NFL, and now -- partly because marijuana was his constant companion -- his football career is kaput.

Rashaan Salaam, not Ricky Williams.

Salaam admitted to reporters in 1999 that he was hooked on marijuana a year earlier when he sat out the ’98 season because of a leg injury.

“I never got caught, I never got put in the system or a drug program,” Salaam said Thursday. “Just me coming out and telling the world that I was being honest and that I was immature and going through some issues, trying to explain to everybody that I changed my ways. By doing that, it got me kicked out of the league, basically.”

Salaam, who set a Chicago rookie record with 1,074 yards rushing in 1995, struggled with injuries and was released by the Bears in 1997. He returned to football in 1999 and, during the next four years, had brief stints with the Raiders, Browns and Packers, the Memphis Maniax of the now-defunct XFL, and Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

Salaam didn’t have the luxury of leaving football on his terms. But Williams did. When he abruptly retired from the Miami Dolphins last weekend, he was at the apex of his career. Turns out, he also was smoking marijuana on a regular basis.

The Miami Herald reported Thursday that Williams had failed a third NFL drug test for marijuana use, and, if he changes his mind and returns this season, will be forced to serve a four-game suspension. Williams told the newspaper that the drug played a larger role in his retirement than he originally indicated, and that smoking marijuana without inhibition was one of “a hundred reasons” that walking away from the game was so enticing.

When Salaam spent a year out of football, marijuana was an essential part of his daily routine.

“I was going through a depression stage and the only way I could medicate myself was to use marijuana,” he explained later. “That was the wrong thing to do. But I thought it could help me out. But I was depressed. It was a time in my life when things were just falling apart.”

That sounds a lot like Williams, who has been diagnosed with social-anxiety disorder and was a spokesman for Paxil, an anti-depressant. He told the Herald marijuana helped him once he had to stop using Paxil because it didn’t agree with his diet.

“Marijuana is 10 times better for me than Paxil,” he said.

He told the Herald that, while appealing a $650,000 fine for his second drug offense, he continued to smoke marijuana while on tour in Europe with rocker Lenny Kravitz and failed a third test on his return.

“Think of the great time he was having,” Salaam said. “Being a professional football player, you never really have a chance to be a youth. You don’t have a chance to have a good time, because every step of the way you’ve got to prove what you did last year. There’s never a time just to be you. Right now he’s being him, and nobody should take that away from him.”

Salaam, who lives in Atlanta and plans to dabble in real estate, says he no longer smokes marijuana. He calls it a “thorn” to his career. He regrets his wasted year, but he regrets something else even more: Telling people about it.

“I would have kept my mouth shut,” he said. “I wouldn’t have said nothing. I wouldn’t have even done an interview.”

*

About a dozen neatly stacked boxes line the back wall of the garage of Alex Garwood’s home in Los Gatos, Calif. They hold hundreds of mementos -- letters, poems, drawings, military medals, American flags and other keepsakes -- all given to the family of Pat Tillman, Garwood’s brother-in-law, in honor of the former NFL player who wordlessly walked away from a lucrative football contract to become an Army Ranger.

Tillman, who enlisted with his brother after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was killed April 22 in a firefight in Afghanistan. His story riveted the nation, even though he took pains to be as anonymous as possible, never speaking publicly about his decision to leave his job as an NFL safety to serve his country.

Garwood lifted a box off the stack and opened the top. He gently set aside a pair of Purple Heart medals well-wishers sent -- the family received 12 of those -- and pulled out a pair of scuffed military boots.

“These,” he said, “just blew me away.”

As the unpaid executive director of the recently formed Pat Tillman Foundation, Garwood is carefully walking the line between respecting Tillman’s wishes that he be treated like any other soldier, and letting the world know more about Tillman to help others in his name.

“It’s a little bit ironic that in this whole thing he didn’t want notoriety and yet he got it,” Garwood said. “But the fact is we’re not going out and talking about him as a football player only and trying to hawk bobble-heads. There’s a right way to do this and a wrong way. We firmly believe that we’re doing this the right way and for the right reasons.”

The board of the foundation also includes Tillman’s brother, Kevin, and widow, Marie. The charity organization is establishing an education program featuring speakers who will visit schools and try to inspire students to make positive changes in the world. Tillman was both a surfer dude and a scholar, a guy whose long hair and flip-flops belied his dedication in the classroom. He graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State in 3 1/2 years.

“We want to create educational programs, targeting junior high and high school kids, where you go in and use Pat as an example to talk about doing the right thing, to talk about someone who’s a complete person,” said Garwood, 32, whose wife, Christine, is the older sister of Tillman’s widow. “We want to help provide kids with tools for questioning things, make sure that they have a deep understanding of the issues, and also provide them the tools to take action.

“Pat loved to get at the root of something and really come up with a conclusion. And he came up with a lot of his own. But he was never arrogant enough to tell you what you should be thinking.... We want to give kids the tools so they can act on their own conclusions. It’s an anti-apathy program, if you will.”

Garwood left his sales job at Brocade Communications to run the foundation. He said more than 400 donations have been made, although he declined to specify exactly how much has been given so far. Other tributes to Tillman have been made by the Arizona Cardinals, who intend to name a plaza outside their new stadium in his honor, and the Pacific 10 Conference, which has renamed its defensive player of the year award after him.

Tillman, who was 27, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, and was given the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award, among other honors. The Fire Department of New York has suggested making Tillman an honorary firefighter.

The family is working with both Arizona State and the NFL to make Tillman’s jerseys available, with proceeds going to the foundation. At Arizona State, the Sun Devils have renamed their stadium tunnel the Tillman Tunnel and a nearby light tower -- the one Tillman scaled in his more pensive moments -- the Tillman Tower. The Cardinals will honor him with a halftime tribute at their season opener. The Tillman family has received several book and movie offers but so far has politely declined those.

“We’ve told them, ‘Thank you. We appreciate it. We’re really not interested at this point,’ ” Garwood said. “We’ve kept all of those on file in case that ever changes, but certainly right now that’s not the direction we’re going.”

To contribute, write the Pat Tillman Foundation, P.O. Box 20053, San Jose, CA 95160.

*

Brock Lesnar, the former WWE wrestler who signed Wednesday as a defensive tackle for Minnesota, was appropriately humble in his first news conference. That’s not surprising, considering he hasn’t played football since high school.

“I don’t know quite what to expect,” he said. “I’m excited, scared, nervous, everything all at the same time. It’s a bit overwhelming.”

Regardless, the Vikings say they believe the former NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion will be able to make the jump from a staged sport to an unscripted one.

“This is no bum we’re talking about,” Coach Mike Tice told reporters. “Is he raw? Yes, of course he’s raw. But what I told him is to be patient. I know I’m going to be patient. A guy like him, you never know. It’s worth the effort.”