Despite some public relations issues in the past, I think Ricky Williams is a pretty kickass guy. And no matter what you think of him, yesterday he did a kickass thing:
Ricky took fellow Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown, some Dolphins cheerleaders, and 20 local wounded military veterans, and went to lunch at Duffy's in Plantation. He also gave each of them tickets to this Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and vouchers for a hot dog, popcorn, and a soda.
Williams, whose grandfather was in the Navy, grew up close to a naval base in San Diego where his mother worked. Of his offering, he said:
"You see the strength of the human spirit and you see that these men and women can go through these experiences and still come back," Williams said in a release from the Dolphins. "It's amazing. We consider what we do to be hard on the football field, but what they do puts our hard work to shame."
From the Dolphins website:
Among those at the table nearest to Williams was Steve Lora, who served four years with the U.S. Army Reserves as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom back in 2003 during the initial invasion. Lora received the Purple Heart, given to a service member who has been wounded in combat and he shared some of the details of what life was like in a combat zone, as did the others. They described how hot it was during the day in the desert while wearing over 100 pounds of gear and how it felt to hear gunshots and explosions constantly. Some of what kept Lora and the others going while on deployment was the ability to follow the Dolphins and root for them on Sundays, so that is what made today special for them.
A lot of people may think a lot of the things Ricky Williams says and does are weird. But there are 20 American military veterans who will be Ricky Williams fans forever.
Video of the luncheon here. Anyone else interested in Wounded Warriors, here.
