AmericaÂ’s most celebrated practitioner of ayurveda has fallen afoul of his employer again. Ricky Williams, running back for the Miami Dolphins, has been suspended for a year following a violation of the NFLÂ’s drug policy. To many fans this is a same-old-story: Williams only recently returned from a previous supension, and the court of sports talk radio has found him guilty of self-indulgence, narcissism, and letting down the team.

WhatÂ’s different this time, however, is that the suspension is not for marijuana (“according to a source” — the league won’t give details). Williams was a known pothead at the University of Texas, with the New Orleans Saints (where he alienated teammates and press with his reclusive behavior, before getting treatment for social anxiety disorder), and during his first stint with the Dolphins. It didn’t stop him from barreling through D-lines, and for a moment in Miami he looked on track to become one of the sportÂ’s greats.

But the weed habit finally got him kicked out, and during his year off he hung out in Australia, India, and eventually studied at the California College of Ayurveda in (yes) Grass Valley. Ricky returned to the league not just clean but cleansed – vegetarian, versed in yoga and ayurveda, wearing only white, and apparently pot-free. (He was in India studying yoga when the offending test results came in.)

So if it wasnÂ’t pot, what was it? The buzz is that an ayurvedic herbal supplement may have gotten him busted this time. In 2004 Abhi blogged that these supplements may not be all that pure. Perhaps Ricky should have chosen this supplier:

While all the other companies are pumping out their herbal formulas from machines that press them into pills or capsules we are making ours according to the traditional methods by hand in a very spiritual and sattvic enviroment away from city life deep in the Oregon forest. Mantras are chanted to the batches while being prepared and than offered to God with love and devotion. According to ayurveda and eastern thought the consciousness and environment that food or medicine is prepared is important on how the herbs effect the subtle and mental body. You will experience the difference when you try these rasayanas. The effects are almost immediate with most of them especially if you live in a city where the vibrations are not good.

Being subjected in the past year to up to 10 drug tests per month is not my idea of good vibrations, and probably wasn’t for Ricky either. Now, one of the more compelling — at to my mind, sympathetic — characters in American sports is considering his options. They include practising ayurvedic healing, or joining for one season the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. In which case, Dhaavak might have a new running buddy, and Neha, a fab new vegetarian dining companion…