Welcomed Williams returns to Dolphins with apologies

Locker-room teasing helped lighten the mood, players said. Defensive tackle Larry Chester noted Williams' long, scraggly beard and multidirectional hairdo.

"Guys were saying he looked like a little homeless guy," Chester said. "It was all in fun."

Williams said he found the warm reception from teammates surprising.

"It's awkward, you know?" he said. "So many things have been floating around, you just never know what to expect."

His return overshadowed Saban on the new coach's first day of camp. It was Saban who reached out to Williams in January, laying the groundwork for the running back's comeback.

When Williams returned to the field, nearly a thousand fans were on hand in humid, 85-degree sunshine. His name and number 34 were still missing from a roster handout - an oversight, a team official said. But a dozen fans wore No. 34 jerseys, the same ones sold for half price in South Florida last fall.

When a pass pattern sent him sprinting toward the stands, the crowd cheered, prompting him to grin. He smiled again later when he stepped to a lectern to answer questions from a cluster of reporters, never his favorite activity and something he hadn't done in 19 months.

When the topic turned to his admitted use of marijuana, Williams said he no longer smokes it. He faces a four-game suspension at the start of the season for violating the NFL substance abuse policy.

"Being an NFL player, I had a problem with some of the rules. I wasn't very comfortable with it, and I decided to walk away from it, " Williams said. "Being away and having a chance to learn a lot about myself, I realized that freedom is having the strength to be in any situation and be content with that situation."

Defensive end Jason Taylor, critical of Williams when the drug issue surfaced last year, said he considers the matter closed.

"I don't think he needs to talk to us about it," Taylor said. "It's none of our business. He can deal with things however he wants. Just don't leave again."

After Williams vanished last July, he lived in a tent in Australia, studied holistic medicine at a California school and spent a month at a yoga center in India, becoming certified as an instructor.

Does he regret the decision to sit out last season?

"It's hard to regret it myself, just because I had an incredible year," he said. "I got to do pretty much all the things in my life that I never thought I would do or I had a chance to do. So for me it was very fulfilling."

Fulfilling but less filling: He lost 30 pounds on a vegetarian diet and took the field Monday at 213, well below his listed weight of 226 on the 2004 preseason roster.

He's no longer big enough for the workhorse role he assumed in 2002-03, and he's not even assured of starting. As a hedge, Saban took Auburn's Ronnie Brown with the No. 2 overall pick in the April draft.

Brown, ironically, was the running back absent Monday. He has yet to sign.

Williams said he missed football and his teammates last year, but money also motivated him to return. A court found the 1998 Heisman Trophy winner in breach of contract by retiring, and ordered him to repay the team $8.6 million.

"It's like the sword of Damocles hanging over someone's head," said Williams' agent, Leigh Steinberg.

Because Williams sat out last season, he's due only the NFL minimum $540,000 this year, compared with the $3.7 million he passed up in 2004.