When Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" asked Ricky Williams if he had done "anything worse than marijuana" in an interview on the show last winter, Williams responded that he sometimes had sugar.

It sounds funny, and it was, but at the same time, it was just one of many answers during that interview that made me love the former Texas running back and who he had become.

Sure, he may have looked foolish walking away from the NFL to read books in the middle of Australia. He probably looked even goofier when he started studying Arjuveda, a type of Indian healing science. But the fact was, Williams was free, didn't care about what other people thought about him and was happy.

Now, I don't smoke marijuana, but I also don't care if that's what caused Williams to feel free and on top of the world.

He had just forfeited millions of dollars because he wasn't going to keep toeing the company line. He no longer enjoyed what he was doing so he decided to leave it behind.

"My whole thing in life is I just want freedom," Williams said in the same interview. "I thought that money would give me that freedom. I was wrong."

"[Now] I'm doing whatever I want to do. Like I said, I've followed freedom for a long time and I finally feel I've got more of it."

The lyrics "This must be just like living in paradise … " rang through my ears — and it wasn't just because my roommate blasts his '80s music 13 hours a day.

Williams was living how everyone dreams they could be living. He was doing whatever made him happy without a care in the world. It was the weekend all week long.

I couldn't help but love his honesty. He could've been making millions taking hand-offs and working day-in and day-out. And yes, to him, playing football was work.

While it may seem like a bogus comparison, just picture yourself behind a desk, doing the same thing every single day. If you don't enjoy whatever it is you do at that desk, naturally you're going to want out.

In fact, the Dolphins' running back created a scene straight out of the movie "Office Space." Granted, the office was a football field, but Williams decided, as Peter Gibbons did in the movie, that he didn't like his job and he just wasn't going to go anymore.

Williams wanted out, and got out, with the world ridiculing him all the way.

His answers, to me at least, made it impossible not to love him.

He could have continued to be rich but instead was choosing debt. He hadn't given an apology to his Dolphins' teammates and didn't think he owed them one.

The interview, and his lifestyle as he described it, sounded perfect.

But now, less than a year later, after serving a four-game suspension, Williams will once again suit up in a Dolphins' uniform this Sunday — proving that money can't buy you happiness but not having any can keep you from it — ruining my once-heroic views of Williams and destroying my utopian notions of a completely free lifestyle.

The running back was not only broke at the time of Wallace's interview, but he was also going to have to pay money back to the Dolphins for leaving his contract.

While his argument that not having any money couldn't keep him from being happy and free seemed convincing, it eventually caught up with him. He was forced to come back to work.

Wallace spoke with Williams again last month. Williams said he didn't return for the money, but for the freedom. But let's be honest, it's the money — and paying off his $8 million debt — that is going to get him the freedom he once had.

He even ended up apologizing to his Dolphins' teammates.

Williams has completely reversed course from where he stood about a year ago. He has made himself look more foolish than ever before, and now I look like an idiot for backing him up following the first issue.

While I once stood up for his decisions, I now see him as a hypocrite.

Sure, his words struck a chord. He was saying everything that I wanted to hear from a professional athlete, or anyone for that matter. Unfortunately for me, I let myself get swept away by an athlete who really never should have been a role model for anyone.

Now I'm stuck back at square one. Maybe money can't buy happiness, but it sure is a big down payment; Peter Gibbons is just a made-up character from a funny movie and there seems to be no such thing as complete freedom.

Perhaps one day I'll book a flight to Australia with nothing but a bunch of books and search for such perfect freedom while living in a tent for seven bucks a day.

But until that day comes, there are obligations to fulfill, money to be made and company lines to be toed.

Oh … and football games to watch, too — like when former Auburn teammates Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown face each other this weekend in a battle of rookie running backs.

Unfortunately, Williams will be there, too, and will probably get more attention than the two of them combined.

Eric is a senior majoring in history. If you want to donate books to his search for freedom, contact him at [email protected].