News: JaMarcus Russell Arrested In Alabama

In another unfortunate twist to his continuing downward spiral, former no. 1 overall NFL draft pick (and more recently total bust at quarterback for the Oakland Raiders), JaMarcus Russell, was arrested yesterday in his former home of Mobile, Alabama on charges of possessing codeine syrup.

Now, far be it for me to stick up for a guy that by all means has made some seriously shotty decisions in the past year and a half, but when word broke that his arrest was a result of an "undercover sting"...Yes, I said an undercover sting, I kind of had to shake my head a bit in the other direction. Please, do keep in mind that Mobile is the deep south and Russell is a young, rich, black kid that makes no qualms about showing folks how well he's done monetarily (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry) in spite of his lackluster play. I don't in any way mean to insult the south, there's heaps of forward thinking, wonderful folks there, but let's face it, a lot of other people there are still living in the 1940's.

I mean an undercover sting for basically what amounted up to cough syrup and high grade pain killers? AKA a cocktail that teenagers grease a their physican's [for a prescription] for routinely? I mean, it's not as if JaMarcus was going Tony Montana with ecstasy pills or something. That extremely suspect investigation coupled with ESPN's laughable coverage of the story, which among other things included pseudo hood terms, all just smacked of piling on. JaMarcus Russell isn't a bad person b/c he had what this country deems "narcotics" in his possession...nope, and he's not a bad person b/c he was habitually lazy in his profession of choice--don't hand me that sad tale that he should've worked harder cause' of the loot he was makin'...there's tons of CEO's that barely even move their asses enough to jump into their thousand dollar suits who make triple what JaMarcus does, never worked an honest day in they life and I don't see anyone calling them "disgraces" and "idiots" at every whim. As far as the media goes, bump em'. I distinctly remember seeing a recent story about a certain celebutaunt who was yet again busted, this time for what appears to be trying to traffick weed in another country. This person isn't receiving a lick as much coverage as Mr. Russell is, despite the fact that she's the poster child for fucking up, breaking the law and NOT being punished like the rest of us most definitely would be, had we tried the same tomfoolery.

I'm not into kicking folks when they're down. Especially not guys that after all just saw their career evaporate and lost their uncle last year (yeah, that happened) Obviously JaMarcus is in a tough spot. Most likely he's confused and like millions of other people in this country and world over he's turned to substances to ease whatever pain and disappointment he's going through. He needs guidance desperatley, and wouldn't it be something if oh, say a Nick Sabin or Al Davis picked up a phone and had a heart to heart with him?

Even after all this, your still only 24 JaMarcus...grit ya teeth, get in shape, ditch the magic juice and get your career back.

-BIG D O