Former NFL defensive lineman Reggie Rogers has had a long history of drinking and driving.
And so, finally, he’ll have an extended prison term because of it.
Rogers, who played for the University Washington and the Detroit Lions, has been sentenced to two years after pleading guilty to two separate 2008 DUI incidents.
The man who has had more second chances than anyone reasonably deserves asked for yet another second chance before learning his fate on Thursday.
“I really would appreciate it if the state of Washington and you and the court and the people of this community would give me a chance,” Rogers told the presiding judge. “Stand on my back like you did when I was playing college football and basketball, when I carried this whole team, this whole state on my back to the promised land. Number one football team in the nation. I did that. I can do it again.”
Said Judge Darrell Phillipson in response: “You’ve had lots of chances to get this right, you haven’t done it. And at some stage in the game, sir, you’ve got to start dealing with reality. You aren’t any of those things you used to be, when you were in college. You aren’t any of those things now except a man whose life is in total shambles because of alcohol.”
Rogers entered the NFL in 1987 as a first-round pick of the Lions, and he killed three teenagers a year later while driving drunk. He spent only a year in jail, but he never was able to put his football career back together.