Ditka sees Williams' potential, do Browns?

SAN DIEGO - The scrutiny has been understandable.

You take a generation of stopwatch-toting football types educated in the '50s, and they want to know how that diamond stud is planted into Ricky Williams' nose and if their organization will be liable for it should some opposing linebacker knock the snot out of him.

And, anyway, just how does that thing stay in there?

So they gather from all parts of the country to watch Ricky Williams, the Texas running back with the perpetual bad hair day, his dreadlocks respectfully pulled back in a pigtail, and, by George Halas, if he's going to play for any of these guys, he'9ll have to cut 'em.

They all know this is the curious upstart who hired Master P to be his agent, and is he that Prince guy who keeps changing his name, or what? They know Master P is no Leigh Steinberg, that's for sure, and that's another red flag, like the 20 pounds Williams put on after the season.

The diamond earring in the left ear, of course, is almost required gear now in NFL locker rooms, and it's understood by everyone that when he gets his signing bonus, he'll be able to decorate the right side too.

But about this ring thing. This tongue thing. Stuck right through the middle of the tongue. You surround Ricky Williams with more than 100 NFL codgers, and if he's got that tongue thing in there, they're all leaving asking the authorities for his rap sheet.

The thing is, though, you don't have to stick your tongue out at Mike Ditka - he knows a tough guy when he sees one.

Ditka knows a football player. Sure, he's never met a quarterback, but tough, gritty, explosive football players, that's his forte. And Ditka wants this guy Williams, while the rest of the NFL isn't so convinced.

They'd like to see him run around orange cones like a mouse trapped in a maze. They'd like him to do the broad jump, run 40-yard dashes, as if any NFL team is going to let Carl Lewis set himself in the blocks, wait until he's ready to go and then take off unimpeded. They'd like to see something more out of Ricky Williams.

This is no generation gap - this is simply idiotic. Ricky Williams has already run for more yards than anyone in college, flashed the speed to race past intimidated defenders and shown the first-class moves to don the jersey of football great Doak Walker for a bowl game after Walker's skiing accident and subsequent death.

Can everyone else in the NFL be wrong and Ditka right? That's scarier than any tongue ring, rapper agent or funky hairdo.

"We're willing to trade the whole orchard for one apple tree," Ditka said the other day on TV, "because this is a pretty good apple tree."

Ditka and the New Orleans Saints have made it known they will trade almost anything, including bread pudding for a year at the Commander's Palace, for the opportunity to employ Williams in their backfield. And if you employed the quarterbacks the Saints now have, you'd want to hand the ball off as quickly as they would.

But there's more to it than that. Ditka sees Williams as the best player in Saturdays NFL draft, while everyone else has gone draft stupid.

And so the Saints have offered their entire draft for the opportunity to move from the 12th position in Round 1 forward to pick Williams. They have also offered choices from next year's draft and almost anybody off their present roster.

Unfortunately, it's probably going to take more than Billy Joe Tolliver to court the Cleveland Browns' favor, although the Browns, the newest team on the block, look lost.

They have had the No. 1 pick since last year when they were awarded an expansion team, and they still don't know whom they are going to take. They liked Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch, but then they took notice of Oregon quarterback Akili Smith. The locals made mention of Jim Brown, a running back who dominated for the Browns, and so they thought that was an interesting piece of information and took a gander at Williams.

Back to Couch. And then Smith. They brought in Williams for a chat after going across the country to work him out. Back to Couch.

"It will go right into Saturday morning until minutes before the draft opens," said Chris Palmer, coach of the Browns.

Here's a historical footnote to include in Cleveland Brown lore as they begin again in the NFL: They could have had Ricky Williams.

But they will probably go for the passer. What do you think of that, Ryan Leaf?

04-15-99