Former Texas Longhorn and NFL star Ricky Williams has a checkered past with marijuana throughout his football career — leading to multiple suspensions and a brief retirement — but now he's going to make money off of it.

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Williams, 39, has backed Power Plant Fitness, a weed-friendly gym scheduled to open this fall in San Francisco, according to a news release, via mysanantonio.com. Williams is a partner and spokesperson for the gym that was founded by Jim McAlpine, who is also the co-founder of the 420 Games, a series of running events developed to destigmatize cannabis.

"Having Ricky Williams as a partner is (expletive) awesome because he exemplifies a successful and very athletic person who also uses cannabis," McAlpine told Complex. "Ricky is as smart as he is a talented athlete. And that is a big statement."

McAlpine added in a blog post that the gym "won't be a place to get high and just screw around. We are focused on the athletic side, not the cannabis side."

Williams, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1998 at Texas and was drafted with the No. 5 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft by the Saints, has always maintained a stance in support of the marijuana.

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"I was a really good football player, a really good person, my teammates loved me, my coaches loved me, but my career and life were ruined because of a drug test," Williams said, via the ibtimes.com. "It doesn't make sense. They have to take a more humane approach to this.

"For the most part, the NFL is a closed system; they don't have to keep up with the times. Because they are a business that depends on viewership, only when the viewers speak, the NFL will follow."