NFL superstar Ricky Williams talks about leaving sports and his journey into the cannabis industry
Ricky Williams knows firsthand that most of the stigmas surrounding cannabis use are ridiculous. After all, the Heisman Trophy winner, first-round draft pick and former All-Pro running back was using cannabis to help his body and mind recover from the “brutal sport” he was playing at what many predicted was a Hall of Fame level.
“Part of the negative stereotype of people when they smoke is they lay on the couch, or they get lazy,” he says, noting that there weren’t a lot of “empowering” cannabis stories at the time. “But what I’m trying to point out is it’s not the cannabis, it’s the person. If your attitude is one about greatness, then when you consume cannabis, that’s what the end result is going to be.”
Nearly 20 years after Williams became an “accidental advocate” for cannabis when he chose to walk away from his football career after testing positive, Williams is bringing that same attitude to his new career as president of Highsman, a multi-state cannabis lifestyle brand designed to meet at the “intersection of sports and cannabis.”
It’s a place where Williams has lived for nearly two decades, giving him a credibility within the industry that few cannabis celebrities can match.
“In my honest opinion, I think Ricky’s really one of the only ones that has that authentic story that could do that,” says Highsman CEO Eric Hammond. “It takes more than just being an athlete to enjoy smoking pot, you know, there’s a deeper connection there.”
Launched in December 2021, the brand was available in six states by early 2023, with more on the horizon, as well as a full collection of apparel and other items soon to be found in stores all across the country. With the company’s distinctive jersey-like packaging and products named to reflect the local market’s beloved athletes, the brand stands out on shelves and has an authenticity that radiates from Williams himself.
“We all grew up sports fans, we all are smokers,” Williams says of the Highsman team. “And so we were creating a brand from that place.”
FOOTBALL
Williams never wanted to be a cannabis activist. He wanted to be a football player, and was an excellent one.
Williams played his college ball at the University of Texas, where he was a two-time unanimous All-American, won the 1998 Heisman Trophy and broke the NCAA Division I-A records for career rushing yards and all-purpose yards, earning him the No. 5 selection from the New Orleans Saints in the 1999 NFL Draft and a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Williams played for the Saints for three years and then was traded to the Miami Dolphins, where he led the league in rushing in 2002 and made the Pro Bowl.
But Williams had a secret: Instead of taking the pills the trainers wanted him to take, Williams was using cannabis to help him recover both physically and mentally from what the game was doing to his body and the pressures of fame were doing to his mind. He says it brought him in better touch with his body to help recovery, rather than simply popping a pill and forgetting about the aches and pains.
“Like everyone else I was hiding it,” he says. “And I hid it for good reason, because it would be detrimental to my career.”
When Williams failed a second test for cannabis in 2004, he shocked the sports world by opting to retire from football.
“I was like, it’s stupid that I shouldn’t be able to do this when I’m playing this brutal sport,” he says. “So I walked away from the game.”
Williams says cannabis helped him “understand myself better” and he realized that perhaps “maybe being a football player isn’t the best thing for me.”
“And it gave me the courage to make different choices and live a life where when I’m creating something great,” he says. “It’s actually making me feel better about myself.”
Even then he says he tried to keep it a secret that there was a drug test attached to his retirement because of the stigma still associated with cannabis at the time. But the story came out anyway and despite playing several years back in the league, Williams was forever associated with cannabis, and the seed of a new mission and company were planted.
‘From Villain to Visionary’
Following his 2004 retirement, Williams says he found himself in Northern California, where cannabis had been legalized for medical use, and he found a community of like-minded individuals and a nascent industry.
As legalization began to spread, Williams decided he wanted to change the narrative about both himself and cannabis, spreading a message and using his own celebrity to counter the myths and stigmas around the plant.
As the plan for Highsman started to come together, Hammond was working his way through the nascent cannabis industry, meeting Williams while he was running the owned and licensed brand division for what he calls a “a NASDAQ-traded cannabis adjacent business.” Hammond, a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, says he was well versed in “Ricky lore” but didn’t know the man himself.
However, after their first conversation he says he could see how passionate Williams was about the plant and the business and how dedicated he was to building a brand that goes beyond the word “Highsman” on clothing or paraphernalia.
“After kind of connecting a few times, and understanding that the mission was far bigger than some bongs and some grinders, we embarked on this together,” Hammond says, calling Williams’ arc “from villain to visionary.”
The goal for Highsman is to become a lifestyle brand on the lines with Cookies, except aimed at a sports crowd. The Highsman product line offers multiple products in three sports-themed categories, Pregame (Sativa), Halftime (hybrid) and Postgame (Indica), with products named for market-specific athletes, such as a “Ken Jiffy Jr.” in Washington or “Gelatti Edelmintz” in Massachusetts.
Highsman launched in both the California and Oregon markets, states that were chosen because of the different consumption preferences and consumer types in those states, according to Hammond.
“It allowed us to really try and understand how our brand connected with different types of people,” he says.
After six months developing an understanding of where they fit in the market and how to best speak with budtenders about the line, Highsman began to find cultivation partners to expand into new states, like Washington, Massachusetts, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
And in most cases, the company’s greatest ambassador is Williams himself, whose story and commitment powers the company, even with budtenders too young to remember his playing days.
Sparking Greatness
Unlike some celebrity brands that simply license a name, Williams has been involved in Highsman from the beginning, helping develop the name and packaging.
“For us, there’s an authentic real experience that that we add to branding and what we do, it adds value,” Williams says, remembering sitting in the living room with the small Highsman team figuring a way to bring sports and cannabis together, particularly the positive aspects, which remains very important to not only the brand, but Williams himself.
“Again, it takes more than a rapper to rap about liking weed or an athlete to like smoking pot to build a brand that extends far beyond something that’s in a bag,” Hammond says. “Everything we’ve done since then has been done with intention as we build an engaged community of followers that now spans six states and growing.”
Williams relates his brand back to the feeling he would get as a young athlete when he strapped on a pair of Nike cleats.
“When I put on my Bo Jackson cleats, I know I ran a little bit faster, so I think there’s an energy with the brand,” he says. “And I think when people hear me talk about cannabis, they feel good about their use of cannabis.”
Williams hopes to create a meaningful connection with consumers, to inspire them to toss off the stigmas of cannabis use and, as the company’s tagline says, “Spark Greatness” in themselves.
“I’ve become more comfortable with sharing my story, because it’s authentic and it’s real,” Williams says. “It’s an empowering story. Hopefully it can empower other people to stop hiding their cannabis use, and embrace the positive things that it brings to their life.”