RICKY WILLIAMS was sitting on a sofa in a smoke-filled room, blazing a joint to rejoice his hashish way of life model “Highsman” throughout one of many greatest sports activities weekends of the yr.

A pronunciation information may notice that Williams’ model sounds precisely like Heisman, as within the faculty soccer trophy awarded over the weekend in New York Metropolis that the Texas operating again received in 1998. Quick-forward a number of many years and Highsman hats, T-Shirts, and product had been on show with a graphic of Williams exhaling over the phrases “spark greatness.”

Leisure weed has been slowly coming to New York Metropolis. Even because the plans to get dispensaries licensed aren’t going easily, it’s authorized to own and partake. Throughout this Twelfth-story room on twenty fifth St., little packets of marijuana bud with Williams’ No. 34 on the duvet had been there for the taking. The directions: “Mild and inhale.”

The tradition has lastly caught up with Williams. Even when I used to be utterly unclear on what a “hashish way of life” may be, Williams has been a infamous fan of the herb since his early days within the NFL. Drafted in 1999, Williams was too good to be held to the foundations till the second it was inconceivable to offer him a cross.

“That’s what’s so particular about even the identify ‘Highsman,’ normally the fellows who get in hassle for medicine are the lower-level guys that you simply haven’t actually heard of,” Williams mentioned. “For somebody to be on the prime of the sport and select to stroll away, I didn’t understand it on the time however it looks as if I made a press release.”

Williams examined constructive for marijuana twice earlier than asserting his retirement in 2004, performed once more in 2005, after which in February 2006 once more violated the NFL’s coverage. He performed within the CFL for a season and was again with the Dolphins in 2007. He’s the topic of an ESPN 30 for 30 known as Run Ricky Run, which documented his mild and curious spirit, his seek for that means past himself and past soccer, and the injury that did to his soccer profession.

However a part of that was because of the guidelines in place on the time, when not solely the NFL barred marijuana use, however promoting and utilizing it got here with harsh penalties from the felony justice system.

Might Williams have imagined again then a sporting universe the place he may legally blaze it up within the Heisman metropolis, when faculty gamers had been creating wealth off their names, and a pre-game present can current yards and carries alongside the percentages as dropped at you by a sportsbook? I imply, may 2004 Ricky Williams ever have hallucinated that the StaplesCenter has been was the Crypto.com Area, and even the NFL has 4 official sports activities betting companions?

“Once you say it like that, it makes the hashish stuff truly not an enormous deal as a result of the whole lot’s modified,” Williams mentioned. “I believe that’s pure. Often the route of progress and evolution is shifting away from custom and the outdated means of doing issues. I can perceive that now as a result of I’m older and I can look again at historical past and I’ve considered this lots.

“However after I was younger, I by no means would have imagined,” Williams paused to survey the neighborhood beneath the haze, a big caddy-cornered tv blocking a part of the Manhattan skyline with Monday Night time Soccer, “this.”

Williams is a blunt ambassador, a weed warrior, an evangelist of the persistent who smokes what he preaches. He recalled the Toradol pictures on Sundays that might put on off on Monday, regularly revealing the complete spectrum of game-day ache. He exhaled to the opposite facet as he spoke, as a courtesy.

“Hashish is definitely about prevention,” Williams mentioned. “Once I began smoking, I finished taking Vicodin and I finished taking Toradol and I spent an additional half-hour stretching. The factor about hashish is it places you extra in contact together with your physique, the place Vicodin takes you out of your physique, it offers you a false sense of safety.”

Who’s to say in one other decade, Highsman received’t be the NFL’s official hashish companion, with “spark greatness” emblazoned beneath jumbotrons in states the place the bud is authorized? Take note, the NFL has official gaming companions regardless that playing on sports activities isn’t authorized in all places. There’s a poetic justice on the planet the place Ricky Williams would star in halftime commercials with whichever Mannings are within the league at that time.

The smokier the room acquired, the clearer the entire hashish way of life factor grew to become. I struck up a dialog with Highsman co-founder Lane Radbill. These events, timed to coincide with occasions on the sports activities calendar, are solely a part of the model outreach. Highsman has a softball crew, and plans to sponsor a flag soccer crew this yr.

“It’s concerning the neighborhood,” Radbill mentioned, and I nodded, now glassy-eyed from the second-hand smoke.

The later it acquired, the more durable visitors began hitting the snack desk. Packets of Massive League Chew had been the primary to go, adopted by these tasty little peanut butter cups within the form of footballs. I began to marvel how a lot cereal we had at residence, and about how scrumptious it’s to have granola with banana slices. If a hashish way of life includes cereal, it may be fairly good.

Effectively earlier than the tip of the evening, a fellow partygoer came visiting to say he was leaving at halftime. The occasion was enjoyable, however he wished to pay nearer consideration to the sport.

“Actually,” he mentioned, “I’ve some huge cash using on it.”