Latest / The Facts with Jamal 🇺🇸🦅👊 / #JamarcusRussell is by far the biggest NFL failure in history and it’s not even close.

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#JamarcusRussell is by far the biggest NFL failure in history and it’s not even close. · The Facts with Jamal 🇺🇸🦅👊

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Alright, so we made it to September, new month, new
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challenge more. So if you're giving like today,
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be appreciable that as always and make it a good day even if
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you don't want to. So time for a sports drawback
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this morning. You know, professional sports
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have had a share of pharmacing players who came in different
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sports, you know, with a lot of expectations and being on the
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microscope of a lot of people. And while some have been able to
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live up to and find a Hall of Fame of legendary careers,
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others completely didn't live up to what was expected.
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Now, entries notwithstanding as the reason why many of them just
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simply couldn't get it done or were either so consumed by other
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things outside of their respective sport that they were
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never able to focus sorely on what they need to do in their
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field of play to be productive. But for one former NFL
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quarterback, how almost 20 years later of his on the mission
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proved that. Just like with a guy in French,
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Young, who I mentioned yesterday, even though he had a
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little bit of a better career, Doctor Marcus Russell's breakout
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performance in the Sugar Bowl in 2007, just six, just seven
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season, also proved that overnight spotlight never
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guarantees success in the world. Now, unlike Young, who they're a
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little better than Russell. Russell, however, became a
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trailblazer and not in a good way.
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And how he became essentially the guy which has changed the
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NFL landscape for players coming in.
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To Marcus Russell sold promise. We came from LSU in 2007.
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Now, mind you, this was a guy who sold a little bit of
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potential. His first, you know, couple
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years with the Tigers before finally starting the last few
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seasons. But it was that Sugar Bowl win
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over Notre Dame and soon to be draft classmate Brie Quinn that
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earned our Soul Game MVP honors after leading the Tigers to a
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dominant win over Northern game. Now when Russell came out of the
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scouting combine, the guy had canned funnel.
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I mean he control ball 6070 yards on his knees.
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Now, like every prospectus question marks, one of the
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problems with Russell when this proved to be a Backbreaker for
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him at least later on, was his weight, unfortunately.
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But I'll save that for down the line.
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Anyway, the 2007 Info Tribe had its own share of Hall of Fame
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talent OR soon to be Hall of Fame from Calvin Johnson, Joe
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Thomas, Adrian Pearson, Patrick Willis, Darrelle Weavers.
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I mean, I get on and on. The Oakland Raiders had the
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first pick and they needed a quarterback.
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And now Davis, God bless the soul, was hoping for at least
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one opportunity to find a quarterback that was going to
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signal the turn of a new franchise.
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Many people around the organization trying to talk
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Davis out drafting Russell by saying going either Adrian
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Peterson or Calvin Johnson with who to be the smarter choice.
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Even his own coach Link Kevin tried to talk him out of it by
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saying ow. I don't think drafting Russell
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would be the smart decision. Even former line CM at the time
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Matt Miller tried to talk his former boss AKA when no one was
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a player for the Raiders. He even tried to talk out of not
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taking Russell because of not only the Lundwick test, but even
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though Russell had great on talent, there was still a lot of
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things black. Now mind you, this was in our
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day was at the end of his mortality.
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Not just you know, I say only, but in life also.
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He wanted the guy with the cannon on.
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That's exactly what happened, and not surprisingly, after
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passing up knowable names, he chose Russell with the first
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pick that year. And that's where the story
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actually reacts immediately after being drafted #1 things
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already come on track. Start with the franchise.
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See Russell for reasons even 20 years later I never understood
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he held out training camp on those end contract.
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As a quick point of reference, this was at a time when if you
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remember when you have seen any player that was a blue chip
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prospect come in the NFL and game.
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It's so up in a mile of money, a lot more in some cases than
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veterans who are playing in the league for 10 plus years.
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Yeah, that part I will go into a little bit later.
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But regardless to Marcus Russell, he missed all training.
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He only went to the rookies suppose him and I was there.
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So immediately off the bat, the Vampy started to question him
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his soon to be teammates. Kyle looked at him sigh.
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I even though he was participating and he did himself
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no favors according to a lot of people when not Nick any need
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reps to help him become an eventual star.
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Eventually the race on to Marcus Russell finally agreed to a six
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year contract nearly 69,000,000 with 31 of it guarantee.
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But the fact he was essentially missed all the training camp are
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not really being in shape. You can essentially say the
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outside of this maybe one or two rookie games that he played in
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at the tail end of the season, it was like, wow, let's just
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kind of put it to the side. Geosynate was Russell's first
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field training camp. So you figure no contract
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dispute, a whole offseason to finally develop what you need to
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do. And it should be all systems go,
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right? Not so much the rails that
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started out 14. Wayne Kiffling was fired five
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games after the season. And Russell, yeah, let's just
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say what was supposed to be a sophomore jump turned out to be
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a how do you. I mean, I'm I can't really say
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sophomore Sloanka and he didn't really play as a rookie.
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There was more of like a sophomore.
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No show after Kiffling was fired.
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Tim Cable to go as head coach. Russell only drew three touch
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sounds and 11 substance. Yeah, when you ultimately have
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those kinds of snap lines, something isn't right and the
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maybe even matters was the various one that's just five
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games. And if you fought Russell's
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performance off the off of a what should be the grade you
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know progressing to his career wasn't meaning, then the myriad
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problems that would happen off the field was only the tip of
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the iceberg. Within a few months span,
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Russell's uncles, who looked after Jamarcus when he was
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younger and who he considered father figures, ultimately
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passed away within a few months. A week one another the loss of
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two, and actually, there was a third family member before
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Jamarcus even joined the Raiders.
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The loss of three key family members weighed heavily on the
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quarterback, and it gave him almost no notification to even
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keep going. In his words, he felt everybody
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was leaving him hard once they felt he had no one to rely on,
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nobody to talk to and of course, aided by his own field
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struggles. It was tough slang when he came
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back to train camp that offseason in jail, SO9HE claimed
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nobody from the Raiders organization even bought to see
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how he was doing. Of course, he didn't necessarily
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let the Raiders know how he was dealing with all this.
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So it's kind of like a double edged sword fever.
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You know, we all go to personal life situations more tragic more
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so than I think a lot of people realize.
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You try and navigate as best we can.
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We understand. But in the end, you have to
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learn to move on and try to live your life the best way you can.
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And especially professional sport like the NFL, unlike the
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three other professionals sports leagues, it's a bomb like this.
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And when Melanie say how 1 of Demarcus's concerns going into
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when he was in the NFL was his weight, Yeah, that particular
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offseason, he came in weighing over £300.
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You heard that correct, A quarterback weigh over £300.
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Not, you know, £300, you know, building muscle, you know,
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looking stronger. He had let himself go that
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offseason, and when it came time for the reckless season to
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finally begin, it was clear that the Raiders, not surprisingly,
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made the wrong decision in drafting this guy.
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But of course, everybody remembers that now infamous
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blank DVD story that the coaches had sent Russell, knowing there
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was nothing on it, to look at game film for an opponent that
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they were preparing for that week and asked Russell to watch
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it when he went home. And of course, you can go look
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for the story yourself. But if you have to send your
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quarterback a blank DVD with essentially nothing on it, and
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on top of that he didn't even buy to open it and just left it
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there, That essentially gave you all you need to know that not
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only was this guy essentially not that we needed to do to
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actually write down the German game found when he was in the
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organization as far as you know, what's means and what have you.
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But it showed the complete lack of understanding how they
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actually be a court. And Long story short, the 2009
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season was just trolls. And it got really to a point
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after a while that the Raiders finally said, you know what,
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we've seen enough. Bruce Scott Kowski took over the
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start of midway through the season and that was essentially
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the end of the world for us. So and shortly that all season
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in Channel 10, the Raiders brought in Jason Campbell from
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Washington to be the court. Which only meant one thing, that
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the Jamarcus Russell experiment after three years was officially
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over and he was released now off season and never played the nine
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NFL game ever again. And of course he would have
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still with legal problems not long after his career was over
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and even though on 2 occasions he tried to revive his career by
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trying to make comebacks. And if you remember, he even
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penned the letter at one point to all 32 teams saying he would
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be on somebody's scout team for free and or train campaign
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fight. Yeah, you're not going to get
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that. Like I said, along with the
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legal problems he would have after his career was over.
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And even now, I still believe he's still facing some serious
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things, including the father the high school that he wants
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starred in in Russellville. AL has been tough slang for him,
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but again, it's been a long time.
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But here's how the aftermath of all of this comes into play.
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Earlier I had said how him holding our trained captain for
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the year was a terrible way to start.
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So he essentially became one of two reasons why you see NFL
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players when they come in, no one believe you're like a first
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round pick, Why you see the rookie salary cap being what it
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is today. Everybody remember standing for
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effort when he came out of Oklahoma, 50 million guaranteed
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right off the bat. Everybody remember that.
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But like with anything, there's always a foundation behind it.
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Jamarcus was the foundation because by him holding out
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essentially gave the league Norway its owners every reason
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to stop the owners contracts for first round players Norway
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quarterbacks 'cause at the time the entire team's salary cap was
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all combined to 1, even to the first round players being paid
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extraordinary money. When the lockout happened in
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2011 on this fought to try to bridge the gap between players
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coming in making all this money over establish 10 year Fets and
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try and create along with others safety messages with the game.
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A competitive way to make sure that rookies in Century E up on
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the salary cap space and put ACBA in which led to a rookie
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salary cap of today. So the days of guys getting paid
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too much money when they come into camp or as rookies in the
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NFL, those days are all gone. And you can blame Jamarcus
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Russell for essentially being the trail boys.
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Maybe in the worst way, sure, but that's the way it is right
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now. In the end, Jamarcus Russell,
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just like Vince young guy I Met Jen yesterday, became another
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cautionary tale of how being put in the spotlight overnight never
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leads to success down the road, but him in particular.
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Essentially, he became the punchline of rookie all time
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boss because look, some people want to bait, why leave And a
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handful of others who didn't necessarily look up the
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expectation. While I'm not even going to try
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argue against anybody who wants to bring up different names,
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there's just one small problem. You know, in the case of, you
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know, Ryan Leaf and many others, yeah, they weren't great NFL
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players. And yeah, they had a lot of
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legal issues after the tourism role.
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At least they were able to redeem themselves in our twin
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much better life. We can't really say the same for
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Russell because not only was he not productive on the field, he
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turned out to be really just a sad waste of a having a lottery
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ticket, a golden one at that. And because of the lack of
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focus, wanting to get paid and not being disciplined enough, he
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essentially do it all the way. That's the point.
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And so while we may poke fun at him for saying of his own
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missing, I am the biggest and the whole boss initially, his
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nearly three years in Oakland was essentially there in the
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conference for how hopefully teams would never take a flyer
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out on the guy who probably did not need to be in the spotlight
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after a record break performance against Nora Damon, the Sugar
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Bowl and how he became the reason why the rookie salary cap
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was independent today in the NFL.