Josh Jacobs has stayed in touch with former teammate Henry Ruggs, the running back said Thursday.
Ruggs and Jacobs played together at Alabama and then with the Raiders. Las Vegas cut Ruggs shortly after his arrest for felony DUI.
Ruggs faces up to 46 years in prison for plowing his car into another, killing a woman in the other car. He is on house arrest.
“I’ve been over there a couple times to his house and talked to him and his family,” Jacobs said, via Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I kept in contact with all of them throughout the whole process. . . . I know everybody. I’ve been knowing everybody. So it was definitely emotional for me.”
The Raiders have had a tumultuous season with Jon Gruden’s resignation Oct. 11 over years-old emails that included racist, homophobic and misogynistic language and Ruggs’ incident Nov. 3.
“I love them dudes,” Jacobs said. “With Henry especially, seeing everything around that whole week reminded me of him. He’d be right next to me in stretch. We’d go over offense or defense, and he’s right next to me. I’ve spent the last five years with him. I definitely had a deeper emotional (bond) with that. It made coming to practice weird. It made being around people weird for me.”
Ruggs has offered Jacobs “some encouraging words, which is crazy.”
“I tried to come out the next game in New York and just play,” Jacobs said. “I kinda got emotional before that game, but once I stepped on the field, I was just like, ‘I’m gonna put it all on the line.’ It was probably my best game this year. So yeah, just trying to get back to football and the love of the game.”