Deadspin: lawrence phillips

The Long Strange Sad Journey Of Lawrence Phillips

Dashiell Bennett — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:31:00 EDT

Former Nebraska/NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was convicted of seven felony charges yesterday and faces up to 25 years in prison, but he's already in jail, serving a 10-year sentence for another crime. How did it come to this?

Of all the cases of wasted talent in football—and there are many—Phillips may have had the most talent to waste. I vividly remember the night It All Changed for him back in 1995, because earlier that day I had watched Phillips torch Michigan State in the home opener in East Lansing. He looked like the best football player on Earth that day, and he might have been, but later that evening he was arrested after throwing his girlfriend down a flight of stairs. Tom Osbourne did not kick him off the team, the Cornhuskers still won the National Championship, and Phillips was a top 10 NFL Draft pick, but that was just the start of the slippery slide of legal trouble that would follow him the rest of his life.

Rams coach Dick Vermeil called him the best running back he ever had—as he was kicking Phillips off his team after multiple arrests. He had numerous assault charges. He played for seven teams in four different leagues. He ran over three kids with a car in 2005. (Earning him the 10-year sentence.) Everywhere he went, he showed flashes of the amazing once-in-a-lifetime running back everyone knew he could be—he won a Grey Cup!—but everywhere he went he got in trouble, burned bridges and was sent packing. On two occasions in 2005, he choked his girlfriend leading to this latest conviction. He is beyond "three strikes" now and could easily get the full 25 years in prison at his sentencing next month.

The good news is that the latest choking victim says they're still dating. Also this, which is priceless. Theisman vs. Kiper on character issues. The whole thing would be funny if it wasn't so depressing.

Ex-NFL Player Phillips Convicted Of Choking Girlfriend [KGTV San Diego]
Related: Lawrence Phillips Hits Bottom, Is Sure He Can Go Lower

Lawrence Phillips Goes For Rare Triple Crown

Leitch — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:00:18 EDT

An old George Carlin comedy routine had a good time mocking California's "Three Strikes And You're Out" policy of jailing three-time felons for life; Carlin pointed out that the writing of laws for the incarceration of our citizens should perhaps not be based in cute and funny baseball terms. But as far as we know, no athlete has ever actually notched one of the real-world trifectas.

But we're awfully close, in the person of the one and only Lawrence Phillips. Turns out, Phillips could be starting down the barrel of his third strike (if we might play the Stephen Colbert metaphor game for a moment).

The guilty plea from 2000 would be his first strike (the previous dragging his girlfriend down a flight of stairs doesn't count as a strike). His "taking his anger out on a bunch of kids who beat him at a pickup game in a sport he used to play professionally" crime (also defined above as assault with a deadly weapon) would make his second strike, and therefore double the maximum sentence to 20 years.

If all goes bad, Phillips could soon be facing his third strike. On top of all of these, he's also awaiting trial on charges he struck his live-in girlfriend in San Diego and strangled her into unconsciousness in 2005. I just hope it wasn't the same girlfriend as the 2000 incident.

So yeah, matters didn't turn out to well for Mr. Phillips. If only Dick Vermeil had tried harder!

Lawrence Phillips: Delay Of Conviction [Lion In Oil]

Lawrence Phillips Hits Bottom, Is Sure He Can Go Lower

rickchand — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:30:43 EDT

And so in the end, Lawrence Phillips leaves us the way we always knew he would: receiving up to 20 years in prison for running into three kids with his car after a pickup football game. The former Cornhuskers /Rams /Dolphins /49ers /Bobcats /Alouettes /Stampeders /Dragons running back was convicted in Los Angeles on Tuesday of seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon, for driving a car into a group of young men, injuring three, in August 2005. He has been jailed since then. Sentencing is set for Oct. 19.

The 31-year-old Phillips drove onto a field near Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after losing a pickup football game. He struck two boys, ages 14 and 15, and a 19-year-old man, and narrowly missed four others between 15 and 24 years old. The prosecutor told jurors that Phillips became agitated when his team fell behind in the pickup game. He left the field, accused the boys of stealing from him and drove onto the field at a high rate of speed.

Oh, did we mention the car was stolen?

How will we remember Phillips? For leading the Cornhuskers to two straight national titles in 1995 and '96 (running for 165 yards and two touchdowns in a 62-24 Fiesta Bowl win over Florida in the latter)? Or for his hobbies, among them dragging an ex-girlfriend by her hair down a flight of stairs (at Nebraska), being arrested three times and spending 23 days in jail (Rams), striking a woman who refused to dance with him in a nightclub (Dolphins) or assaulting his girlfriend in 2000 (not under contract)? Ironically, we will remember Phillips for something he didn't do. In the Monday Night game in Tempe, Ariz., on on Sept. 27, 1999, Phillips missed a blocking assignment — some say on purpose — allowing Arizona free safety Aeneas Williams a free lane to blindside Steve Young. The 49ers quarterback sustained a career-ending concussion on the play.

Phillips allegedly pawned one of his Nebraska championship rings at a Las Vegas pawn shop recently. For the record, the price of a squandered career and a wasted life these days is 20 bucks.

By the way, no word on whether Dick Vermeil's going to drive him to prison.

Phillips Faces Up To 20 Years In Prison [MSNBC]
No Coach Ever Solved Lawrence Phillips [USA Today]