America At Large: In this day and age even bench-warmers have websites, but Ricky Williams was the only professional athlete I've known to actually operate his own.

He had installed a wireless hook-up in the Miami Dolphins' locker room, and used to spend hours before and after practice sessions updating his site and answering fan email.

I can remember the first time I interviewed Ricky after he had been traded to the Dolphins two years ago. He had just returned from the practice field in Davie, Florida, and while it was 90 degrees outside, he was wearing baggy trousers and a T-shirt, his dreadlocks spilling out from beneath a red stocking cap. Although he had been a millionaire since being drafted by the New Orleans Saints in April of 1999, it occurred to me that had he walked down a New York street looking like this, sympathetic passers-by would have been handing him dollar bills.

Ricky explained that day that he was the sole contributor, writer, and editor for runrickyrun.com.

"Sometimes I write it in the locker room, sometimes at home, sometimes on an airplane," he explained, looking up from his laptop. "Whenever I have time. I just start writing. It doesn't take as long as you think - and I do have spell-check."

His Miami incarnation seemed a far cry from the troubled player who had earned his ticket out of New Orleans after three misspent seasons. In New Orleans he had been known to curl into a foetal position in his locker, offering monosyllabic responses (if any) from behind the face-shield on his helmet, which he would wear during interviews.

From almost the moment then-coach Mike Ditka traded the Saints' entire complement of draft choices to pick the Heisman Trophy-winning NCAA rushing record-holder out of Texas, things had never gone smoothly for Ricky in New Orleans.

Increasingly confused and withdrawn, he was eventually diagnosed with "social anxiety disorder" (psychiatrists used to described it as being "shy") and placed on medication. In February of 2002 he was apprehended for driving over 120 m.p.h. outside Crowley, La. He eventually paid a $500 fine, and the Saints consummated their transaction with the Dolphins a few weeks later.

Two months after the Dolphins traded their number one draft choice for the troubled running back, Ricky had another run-in with the law. The South Florida constabulary stopped him in downtown Fort Lauderdale and claimed he was "acting incoherently" and carrying no identification. He was placed in handcuffs, and watched while the cops went through his Hummer with a drug-sniffing dog. The dog found only some old Chinese food. Williams was given a traffic citation and released.

Ricky opted to fight the charge, maintaining, not without justification, his real offence had been what has come to be known as "driving while black".

This past summer, just as the Dolphins were assembling for their pre-season camp, Ricky Williams, at the age of 27, stunned the football world by announcing his retirement from professional football. He cited several reasons, but the one the media jumped all over was that he wanted the freedom to smoke weed without being harassed by the NFL's substance-abuse policy.

Details of the league's monitoring system are supposed to be confidential, but about this point the Dolphins, presumably in self-defence, leaked the information that Ricky had just tested positive for marijuana for the third time in his career.

Social anxiety disorder be damned, they seemed to be saying, Ricky was just perpetually stoned.

As Ricky wandered off to, he said, travel the world, it brought to mind Shake Tiller, the fictional wide receiver in Dan Jenkins's seminal football novel Semi-Tough, who quit the New York Giants after a Super Bowl win and marched off to Katmandu with a bong under his arm. As the 2004 NFL season commenced, Ricky was spotted living in a tent in Australia.

To say the Dolphins were left in the lurch is an understatement. In two seasons Ricky had rushed for 3,225 yards and 25 touchdowns on an NFL-record 775 carries. In his absence this season, the Miami team has already gone through four running backs, and is averaging an NFL-worst 59.8 yards per game on the ground. The Dolphins are 0-4 going into Sunday's game against the defending champions, New England Patriots, in Foxboro.

Though sportswriters and team-mates have pilloried Williams, there was in this corner a vague sense of admiration. Ricky might not have chosen the wisest course, but he was at least a man of conviction. How many of us could turn our backs on $3.74 million as a matter of principle?

"Ricky Williams is a great football player," the Dolphins' legendary retired coach Don Shula said. "Why he made the decision to do what he's doing right now is something I'll never understand."

But the saga of Ricky Williams took a dramatic turn over the past two weeks in the wake of two presumably not-unrelated developments.

Last month a federal arbitrator ruled that Williams had breached his contract with the Dolphins and had to repay $8.6 million of the bonus he had collected when he signed. And this week it was revealed Williams had sent a letter to the NFL "asking for clarification" of his playing status. Agent Leigh Steinberg confirmed "Ricky has asked me to explore and to try to facilitate his return . . . He has a passion for playing football."

Or, perhaps, he has a passion for $8.6 million.

It isn't altogether clear if Ricky will get his wish, or that the Dolphins would welcome him back if he did. According to NFL rules, he would, as a three-time offender, have been suspended for four games this season, but, since he filed retirement papers in August without serving the suspension, the mandatory suspension could grow to one year.

Williams burned a few bridges on his way out of town last summer. He had been openly critical of offensive co-ordinator Chris Foerster, and appears to have alienated many team-mates as well. When word that Ricky might be considering a return reached Davie this week, some Dolphins didn't sound particularly enthusiastic.

"We're not waiting on pins and needles for him," said guard Taylor Whitley.

"We're not holding our breath."