RICKY WILLIAMS

higher standards

A mind-expanding conversation with former NFL superstar Ricky Williams

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, AN INTERVIEW CREEPS UP IN YOUR BLIND SPOT AND ABSOLUTELY FLOORS YOU BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN HEAR THE FOOTSTEPS.

I should have seen it coming when, as I was emailing a representative for Errick Miron – formerly known as NFL legend Ricky Williams – she asked me for the place, date and time of my birth. After all, it’s not every day one of the best running backs in history pulls your astrological chart before you link up to talk about weed and psychedelics.

As the co-founder of Highsman, a multistate Cannabis company built with hopes of inspiring people to be their best selves, Miron brings wisdom and poignant experience to the discourse around Cannabis, entheogenic medicine, and internal versus external identity. Miron discussed his history with the plant, his personal journey of self-discovery, astrology and his goals for the future of his company. ON HIGHSMAN, CANNABIS AND ATHLETICS:

“Our tagline at Highsman is ‘Spark greatness.’ This ritual of lighting up, and ‘What problem, what issue, internal, external, am I going to go after?’ It’s funny; we punish and we ridicule athletes when they get in trouble for consuming, but we don’t ever ask ‘Why are they consuming?’ or ‘What are they doing when they’re consuming?’ The nature of an athlete is that we have opponents, problems, skills – we have these things we have to constantly work toward. For me, when I used Cannabis, I didn’t change. I didn’t just become a different person. It just gave me more breath, and more space, and more insight in which to think about and attack the problems and the issues that were showing up in my life. And I found that extremely useful. There wasn’t anyone in my personal circle or around me that was talking to me about Cannabis in that way, so I had to learn the hard way. The really hard way. So a big part of telling my story and getting this brand out is so people have access to these ideas, and ways to think about and use Cannabis and other psychedelics and entheogens.” ON HIS JOURNEY WITH CANNABIS:

“I came back my senior year to try to get the Heisman Trophy … The season starts off kind of rough. We have a couple of rough games, my girlfriend leaves me and starts dating the quarterback on our team. I was having a really rough couple of weeks. My roommate’s like, ‘Dude, you just need to chill.’ So he brought out his little bong and had me take a couple of hits, and that was the first time I experienced what I would call the therapeutic effect. Because I was in a bad place. Mentally, my mind was taking me to a really dark place, and I remember smoking that night and laying on my bed, and it was the first night in weeks that I wasn’t obsessing about the girl and the performance, and that cleared some space. And then I started thinking about the future, and thinking about how I was going to bounce back, and how I was going to handle the next week and get myself right. I ended up having back-to-back 300-yard rushing games. That’s, like, some kind of record. I do attribute Cannabis with helping me get my mind to a different place, so I could get myself to a different place. After that, I started to realize, ‘This is useful.’ Even that reflective state of mind, where I had the desire to understand what was going on – that became something more appealing to me.”

“When I came back for my senior year (instead of going into the NFL draft), people told me I was crazy. I was risking getting hurt and all of this stuff, because my junior year I led the nation in rushing and scoring. I would have been a top five pick. But I came back because I wanted to win the Heisman Trophy. I thought, ‘There’s very few people who even have the opportunity, let alone the opportunity to be the front runner. … It was obvious that it wasn’t a given, but I was like, ‘I’m this close, why not take a shot?’ It was the Heisman Trophy, and also I was really close to being the all-time leading rusher in college football history. These big dreams that people would remember me by. Or I could just be a really good college running back who went to the NFL. It was a choice. Greatness, or pretty good and keep it movin’. And I couldn’t resist going for it. That requires the ability to dream. … For me, I saw this opportunity to go for it. I put all my eggs in one basket and I said I’m going for it. The season started and it didn’t start well. Things went to shit. I lost that imaginative state. And that’s when I found Cannabis as medicine, and it helped reengage. It helped me lift out of that, and do the impossible. I broke all the records, I won the Heisman, I did all of it! And Cannabis helped me. That’s the story, and it’s not just sports – it’s anyone. Going for it. Taking your shot. What do you really want to accomplish with your life? Because as you go and try to accomplish it, there’s gonna be obstacles. There are gonna be things that knock you down. And you’ve gotta have a set of tools where you can transform those obstacles into fodder to help you grow and achieve what you’re capable of. ON THE ROLE OF CANNABIS IN HELPING HIM LEARN MORE ABOUT HIMSELF, AND WHO HE WANTS TO BE: “I know that’s why it’s a part of my life. The story that I was told is that it’s a drug, and it’s a problem. My experience is that it’s a tool, you know? It’s a useful tool. And it’s something that I’m always thinking about – how to grow and how to become a better person – and really what that means is how to become more of myself. And I’ve realized the experiences I have in the world, they trigger internal things for me to learn about myself. So I go out in the world, and I experience the things that trigger stuff up in me, and I consume Cannabis and I sit with what’s up. In that process, I get to really learn about myself, so the next day when I go out into the world, I can be a more authentic version of myself because I’ve learned more about myself. I’ve found it’s just a great tool to facilitate that cycle of growth and development. I t’s been a necessity, because early in life, I struggled with the conflict between my external responsibilities and who I was supposed to be, and how it felt to me. And I think that through this process, I’ve learned to lean into going out, and coming in – you know, the breath of life.” ON NON-CANNABIS ENTHEOGENS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE PLANT: “I can’t honestly say there are other things that I look forward to, or that I move towards. For me, it’s more like, when the medicine calls, I listen. But it’s not something that I seek out. I feel like Cannabis is that daily tool – the tool you use on a daily basis like brushing your teeth. You’ve gotta floss and brush your teeth on a more or less regular basis. Right? That’s just maintenance. But then every six months, you go in for the cleaning. You’ve got that pick, and you get that deeper cleaning. I feel like on those kinds of regular intervals that the more powerful medicine calls.” “It’s interesting, the connection between what I’m calling more powerful medicine and more potent medicine and Cannabis. A lot of times, I’ve noticed people, when they try and consume Cannabis, a lot of anxiety and fear, and a lot of things come up for them. A really powerful, nice dose of psilocybin can help them in a more intense way release some things, so then as they consume Cannabis, there’s more space there. They’ve cleaned some things out. It’s like when you let the garage get really, really messy, and then you try to sweep it, and it’s like, ‘This isn’t doing anything! I have to devote my whole day to the garage!’ Right? And you go through it. Then, once you clean and you sweep, it’s like, ‘Ah, it feels good.’”

“I ended up having back-to-back 300-yard rushing games. That’s, like, some kind of record. I do attribute Cannabis with helping me get my mind to a different place, so I could get myself to a different place. After that, I started to realize, ‘This is useful.’ Even that reflective state of mind, where I had the desire to understand what was going on – that became something more appealing to me.”

“There’s a funny quote that comes out every 4/20 – it’s a quote from me and it says, ‘I got high and forgot I wasn’t supposed to get high.’ There was this thing where the biggest issue in my life became these drug tests, and the potential harm that might come. That became the biggest stressor in my life. And sometimes in order to not think about that, yeah, I smoked a little bit. In my imagination, I lived in a world where I wasn’t being piss-tested all the time. And I needed that feeling, and feeling like I’m not a criminal in order to maintain some kind of sanity. It was frustrating, but it led me on this journey. It forced me to make decisions about what was important to me. We talk about mental health, but if we look at the choices that people make in their lives, they keep choosing to do things that aren’t good for their mental health. And we have all these reasons and justifications. I was just someone who said, ‘I really am going to value my mental health.’ What does that mean? I’m gonna ask myself, ‘Does this feel good to me?’ I think as a football player, so much of the training was ‘it doesn’t matter.’ We still have to score touchdowns. If it hurts, all the better. My training was one way, and Cannabis really helped me create that balance, and realize that I gotta learn to listen to myself and take care of myself, and do what feels good to me – regardless of what the external world thinks.”

ON PLANS TO EXPAND HIGHSMAN’S GOALS TO INCLUDE PSILOCYBIN AND OTHER ENTHEOGENIC TOOLS:

(Highsman) is really all of it. I’m wrestling with the guys, but eventually we’re gonna find a way to squeak a little astrology in here. Because it really is about tools to help people achieve their greatness – not by chasing something externally – but from understanding internally what you are truly capable of. So, for us, really, Highsman is about anything. It’s a lifestyle. … To me, it’s more about, if you’re constantly – thinking about how you can be more yourself, how you can be more creative, then all the choices you make are going to be feeding and supporting that idea.”

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