Careers in the NFL: Earl 2187 carries, 9407 yards, 4.3 avg, 74 TDs (Hall of Fame) Ricky 2286 carries, 9436 yards, 4.1 avg, 64 TDs (mainly invisible) Not as much difference as you would think in their NFL careers.
Kind of like their college careers. Ricky had the better overall career, but Earl was better at his peak. Earl's first three NFL seasons were some of the best in league history. I don't think any player had a start like that.
Ricky Williams was an absolute star in college. All time rushing record, multiple 300 yard games, highlights, Heisman... I even went to a parade for him. Earl had all that both in college and in pro. I just find it interesting that Ricky is not really known by most as having had any meaningful career in the NFL at all, yet really he has. Good for him!
Ricky's reputation suffered from two problems. First, there is no way he could live up to the hype of New Orleans and Ditka trading all of their draft picks for him. He was much better received once he got to Miami. Second, of course, was his well documented suspensions for marijuana and his premature retirement. After those problems it was always a bit of a surprise when Ricky did well. Earl, on the other hand, never lost his golden glow.
I love Ricky, and I also went to the parade for him, but those of you not old enough to have seen Earl in person can not comprehend what a badass he was.
Earl was the real deal. His NFL career was cut short by his running style. He dealt out a lot of punishment to defensive players but it took a horrible toll on his own body.
I was very young watching Earl as an Oiler and was at UT and met Ricky several times so I have a love for both of them. All that being said I wanted to look a little deeper into the stats: Earl played 9 seasons which included 115 games and Ricky played 10 seasons (over 11 years) which included 127 games. Earl's last 3 seasons (one in Houston and two in New Orleans) netted him 1,111 yards and was a shell of himself. Ricky has maintained himself fairly well over his career, Thus to understand the true greatness and why Earl is in the HOF you have to look at just his first six years of his career. In those years he ran 1,883 for 8,296 yard or 4.4 YPC. When it is time to discuss Ricky's career or HOF stats, he will most definitely be hurt by off the field things as well as really only have the one season (2002) where you say wow, plus he has yet to be on a good team.
Hey, I'm with you as a lover of Earl. I remember seeing him in person as a freshman stuck in on the punt team and he blocks a punt. We were like "this guy may be better than Roosevelt Leaks!" And my mind may be tricking me, but I think we had a parade or big get together on the drag, where they lit the #1 for Earl's Heisman. But, to the point, in Ricky's first 6 years in the league (and he sort of quit in the 6th year), he had 8996 yards from scrimmage, which is more than the 8987 yards from scrimmage that Earl had in his first 6 years that you refer to, while Earl was in his prime. Yet Ricky was the big disappointment, for some reason, well for a few. My point is not to argue that Ricky is better than Earl. I'm just saying that their professional careers have been amazingly equivalent, which is shocking since the one is a Hall of Fame Mount Rushmore type and one is usually thought of as somewhere between a bust and a disappointment. I would expect Ricky vs. Earl debates to be close debates for college career, but not for pro career.
This is what perplexes me about the way Miami is utilizing Ricky, check these stats out: Williams: 122 carries 544 yds 4.5 yds/carry Brown: 156 carries 589 yds 3.8 yds/carry Looking at those stats RW is having better production than Brown but it seems that the Dolphins want to use Brown more than Ricky. Ricky is also 7th in yards per carry, Charles is 1st with 6.2 yards per carry, amazing.
I know it's all you got but you can't compare Earl's stats with Ricky cause they didn't keep BRO's stats back then (and well still don't) BRO's= Bodies Ran Over No joke, Earl did more in his yards than Ricky has, picture a running mentality like Marion Barber with much bigger legs who had the ability to run over line backers and did, definitely CB's. Couple these two reasons why Earl is on another plane than Ricky in the minds of many fans who know.
First, RW is my second favorite Longhorn of All Time!!!! MA is my favorite!!! Earl's window is smaller(smaller amount of time) and more impactfull. Ricky is a bigger window(over a longer period of time) and not so impactful for his team. Him and Brown split carries because Ricky is a mid 30's something RB, which you do not see very often. RW could not take a full season's punishment anymore. I think there is a quote out there that says When Earl ran SNOT flew. That somes it up for me who loves to watch punishing running backs!!!!!! I will say that RW is a much better receiving back than Earl!!!! How many receiving yards do they each have? Compare Ricky to Marcus Allen's stats......
Here's an old thread about Ricky Williams from 2010, which I will update with his final numbers, which are 2431 carries, 10,009 rushing yards, 66 TDs, 342 catches, 2606 yards receiving, 8 TDs 12,615 yds from scrimmage; 74 total TDs (one pass completion, one 2-pt conv., and 16 tackles) I am pleased that by now as he is retiring, his accomplishments are not seen as so "invisible" as they seemed a couple of years back.
Earl won rookie of the year, 3 consecutive yardage titles, 3 league mvp awards, and was selected to 5 probowls, all while carrying what was an otherwise middling to good (at best) team. Ricky was fantastic in college and had a much better pro career than most people realize. If that's the main point being made here we can probably all agree. Having said that, Earl had a tremendous pro career and was, in his prime, as great as any running back ever to play the game (in my opinion.) For these reasons it seems a disservice to Earl and his accomplishments to attempt to equate his and Ricky's pro careers.
I refuse to choose I just am glad I got to watch these two amazing Longhorns in person. One doesn't need to justify why one was "better than the other". It is not a fair comparison. The time and level of competition/atheletes was different, offensive and defensive schemes were different, etc. All that being said, it pretty hard to ignore the complete domination of defensive backs and most LB's that Earl displayed, and a real joy to watch. Thank you Football Gods for bringing these two amazing men to TEXAS.
Earl gave maximum effort until his body could give no more. Ricky never seemed to care that much for football. Who knows how great he could have been had he been wired differently.
