Way back in the innocent ages of 1995, when
the local TV station began to cover the NFL Draft, Yours Truly literally
blurted out at the TV, "Don't draft him. He's gonna be a bust!" when
the St. Louis Rams made the ill-advised decision to draft running back Lawrence
Phillips with the sixth pick overall.
In Tom Osborne's famed wishbone offense in
the University of Nebraska, Phillips and quarterback Tommie Frazier were the
biggest college football stars in the early- to mid-1990s. Thanks to their huge
runs after huge runs, Nebraska won two National Championships in 1994 and 1995.
Not surprisingly, the Rams were very high
on Phillips, so much so that they decided to ride him into the ground and trade
away the incumbent Jerome Bettis to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
While Bettis' career flourished under Bill
Cowher with the Steelers and eventually became "The Bus" and voted
into the Hall of Fame, Phillips' off-field issues had caught up with him. After
that ill-fated trade in 1996, Bettis played for 10 more seasons and had 6
1,000-yard seasons for the Steelers. As for Phillips, the Rams soon gave up on
him and released him mid-way through the 1997 season, and he only played a
dozen more games afterwards.
With the football career over, Phillips had
run into more legal problems, ranging from domestic abuse and assault. While
serving time for assault on his former girlfriend early last year, he became
the prime suspect of the murder of his cellmate and was subsequently charged
with first-degree murder. Sadly, while awaiting trial in prison, he was found
by the prison guards dead in what is suspected as a suicide, at the age of 40.
Yours Truly has never been good at
forecast, not to say making bold statements. But that day that turned out to be
the peak of Yours Truly's career as a prognosticator.
For years, Yours Truly is rather proud of
the draft-bust prediction on Phillips. However, his early death has cast a
shadow on this once-proud moment.
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