ARGOS RIGHT TO GIVE WILLIAMS A SECOND CHANCE

Has Potential To Be A Good Role Model

Before he died recently in a traffic accident, age 48, Steve Howe was
the poster boy for second chances. Third, fourth, fifth, sixth,
seventh and eighth chances, too. Seven times Howe was suspended by
Major League Baseball after failing drug tests (cocaine was his demon
of choice) and each time he got another role in The Show.

It helped that he was a fine relief pitcher, rookie of the year when
he broke in with the Dodgers in 1980. It helped, too, that quite
aside from the drugs and their effects, he was a decent man, beloved
by many teammates. George Steinbrenner was a Howe supporter,
embellishing his reputation for standing by his more troubled Yankee
players (Darryl Strawberry, et al).

"A guy asked me one time, 'Well how bad is the drug problem in
baseball?' And," said Howe a few years back, "I go, 'Go take a survey
of your housewives, your doctors, your lawyers, your people down the
street, and there you got your problem.' "

"People down the street" can't believe it when top-drawer athletes
screw up. All that talent. All that opportunity. All that money. What
a waste. The selfish bastards. Merely human.

Does Ricky Williams, suspended yet again by the NFL, "deserve" the
opportunity to play this season in the CFL? Are the
community-conscious Argonauts doing the right thing by even
entertaining the possibility?

Coach Michael Clemons, whose moral compass is more trustworthy than
most, says: "If we say we can't (sign you) because of what you have
done in the past, then we're hypocrites."

Two upstanding current Argos, receiver R. Jay Soward and tackle
Bernard Williams, made their way to the CFL after being suspended by
the NFL for substance abuse. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have enlisted
running back Onterrio Smith, of Original Whizzinator infamy, banned
from continuing his career with the Minnesota Vikings.

"I'd say smoking pot is probably widespread in the NFL," Argos'
Williams told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in light of the Smith
signing. "You can beat the test. I know because I know guys who are
still playing in the NFL who have been smoking pot for years and
haven't been caught."

Clemons and Co. are zealous in their anti-guns, anti-crime,
anti-drugs mission, preaching to the most vulnerable, kids who might
more easily identify with guys like the Williamses, who have been
down some blind alleys, than those who have always trodden the
straight and narrow. Clemons has made it clear that he believes Ricky
Williams' most recent test was not for marijuana, but rather for one
of the "herbs" he consumes as part of his live-clean-and-do-yoga
regimen. Plus, he has said he'd expect Williams to be a major player
in the team's off-field programs, an American in a nation that is
willing, after all, to discuss legalization of weed and in a city
known globally for its tolerance.

If they can swing it, the Argos should hire Williams. They would be
breaking no law by doing so or even violating ones unwritten. He has
the potential to be a great role model -- if he were to mess up he'd
merely join the ranks of the told-you-so losers.

Behind many great athletes there are second chances. Craig MacTavish,
currently coaching the Edmonton Oilers and shepherding all of
Canada's Stanley Cup hopes, spent a year in prison after he killed a
woman, Kim Radley, while driving drunk. Glen Sather gave MacTavish,
released by the Boston Bruins, an opportunity to start over in
Edmonton. No regrets, all around.

Howe, by the way, rolled his pickup truck, fatally, while returning
to his home in California from Arizona, where he'd been on a business
trip promoting a new "all natural" energy drink. In death, as in
life, Howe has been tested for foreign substances -- results will be
known later this summer.