Lawrence Phillips 1975-2016

January 13, 2016 2:11 PM

Former football star Lawrence Phillips has been found dead in his jail cell. Phillips was a star running back at the University of Nebraska, where he won back-to-back national championships in 1994 and 1995. The latter is often considered the best college football team ever assembled. Phillips was as well-known for his off-the-field problems, one of several troubled star players that legendary NU coach (and now ex-Congressman) Tom Osborne was accused of coddling.

Phillips played in the NFL for a few seasons, but was widely considered a bust. His legal troubles continued after he left football. In 2005, he ran over three teenagers with a stolen car after a pickup football game, and police found several outstanding warrants for various domestic assaults. He was sentenced to a total of 32 years for various charges relating to those incidents. In April 2015, his cellmate was found murdered. After discussing prison life in poignant letters to former coaches, he was charged with murder yesterday. His death is believed to be a suicide.

posted by kevinbelt (20 comments total)

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I don't know anything about football, but man that sounds tragic all around. Will he likely have the brain test where they can figure out if playing football might have caused brain damage that set him on this route?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:14 PM on January 13, 2016

Somehow, I don't think that his troubles were due to too much coddling.

Very sad.

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posted by Melismata at 2:49 PM on January 13, 2016 [8 favorites]

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Also, a sad way to see my home state make the news.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 3:04 PM on January 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is a sad story all around--for the people he ran over, for his cellmate who was killed (however that happened), and for him. No one wins here.

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posted by smirkette at 3:11 PM on January 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

I had some time on my hands over Christmas and access to a Catholic hospital library, so I dug into 1961 novel "The Long Gainer". One minor character was a college football star who had gotten away with raping a 15-year-old (among other things) and was protected from the consequences of his crimes by a series of coaches, local football boosters, and college administrators because of his athletic ability. It's an old story, I guess.

Phillips' problems may not have started with too much coddling, but the coddling probably amplified whatever effects of brain damage and childhood were already there. He got a slap on the wrist for "dragging his girlfriend down three flights of stairs, punching her in the face, and kicking her in the chest". He "allegedly punched a woman twice in the face for refusing to dance with him". Etc.

He only faced serious legal consequences for any of this after football teams were no longer willing to hire him. Before that - as long as any coach, anywhere, was willing to put him on the roster - no-one in law enforcement seemed to care very much about what happened to women who were beaten up by Phillips.

This is an individual tragedy, and it's also another illustration of a longstanding systemic problem.
posted by clawsoon at 3:13 PM on January 13, 2016 [31 favorites]

The article mentions he was in a group home in high school. Don't know how long he was in the foster care system, but every kid who lived in a group home I had when I was a high school teacher had major, major issues. In fact, they're placed there because they require more supervision and treatment than a family could provide. (In theory because the reality is that budgets are such that these places are rarely adequately staffed and supervised.) These are the kids who survived abuse, neglect, many of them traumatized. Many had diagnosed behavioral disorders. There was a lot of rage. Many of them were already into some sort of criminal activity.

I never knew Phillips and his life so maybe he did get coddled in HS or college, but if he ever was, I'd be shocked if he hadn't also been dealing with some deep psychological issues prior to that.

Working with kids from group homes is probably in the top five most heartbreaking experiences of my life (most of which came from my time as a teacher, come to think of it) and I was just an observer--I can't imagine living it.
posted by smirkette at 3:26 PM on January 13, 2016 [15 favorites]

I remember hearing Ray Lewis say in a radio interview once that Lawrence Phillips was the only running back he ever had trouble handling, and I guess Phillips must have been so much trouble that even he couldn't handle it, himself.
posted by jamjam at 3:38 PM on January 13, 2016

There are probably a number of factors that contributed to his underlying impulse control and emotional state regulation problems. His inability to manage these issues lead him to commit numerous acts of violence, leading to his suicide. I think we should screen kids in school for deficits in these areas and provide them with medication and behavioral training to help them manage their issues better.
posted by humanfont at 4:12 PM on January 13, 2016 [3 favorites]

"coddling" is such a disgusting 90s term for what is actually "preserve legally while abusing their brains into more and more violence."
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:25 PM on January 13, 2016 [12 favorites]

How long does it take to scan a cadaver for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy?
posted by bukvich at 4:38 PM on January 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

Phillips almost certainly had brain injuries. The writer Bill Simmons had an interesting take that comes to mind here.

OJ Simpson is still alive. Let's say tomorrow he announces, yes, I absolutely murdered Ron and Nicole, exactly how the prosecution said. And I've also had too many concussions to count. I've been suffering memory loss, rages, blackouts and everything, starting in the 70s. I've been brain damaged this whole time.

What happens then? No one would have a good thing to say.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:54 PM on January 13, 2016 [12 favorites]

The worst part about the "coddling" of big time college and professional atheletes like Phillips is that they don't get the mental/behavioral help they need early enough to prevent one or two incidents early in their life from turning into a life-long sereies of incidents that catch up with them when the coaches, schools and teams* who have been exploiting them no longer have any use for them

*media personalities and fans who decry people like Phillips "ruining sports" yet refuse to acknowledge their own complicity in perpetuating a system that led to Phillips being where he was at the time of his death are also guilty of exploiting him, albeit indirectly, in my opinion.
posted by KingEdRa at 4:58 PM on January 13, 2016 [2 favorites]

I don't think "coddling" is quite the right thing to accuse Osborne of. From the 1995 SI piece in the FPP:

"I don't tell Tom Osborne how to run the football department,"Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey says, "and he should stay out of the criminal justice system. He hasn't done that at all." According to Lacey, Osborne has taken it upon himself to interview witnesses in criminal cases, offered very public opinions on the probable innocence of players who have yet to stand trial and attacked the credibility of witnesses testifying against his players. In January 1994 he and an assistant evenlocked away a gun that had allegedly been used by one of hisplayers in the commission of a felony.

"That's Osborne using his influence to disrupt the criminal justice system," Lacey says. "Osborne talks to witnesses.Whether he tried to influence them or not ... someone with his reputation would have an effect."

That's not coddling. That's something else entirely. So is this:

Tyrone Williams, a senior cornerback, was charged in March 1994 with two felonies--unlawful discharge of a firearm and use of a weapon to commit a felony--in connection with a Jan. 30, 1994,shooting. Police say that Williams fired two shots into a car occupied by former New York Jet safety Kevin Porter, who was in town visiting friends. Porter was not hit. After the shooting, but before Williams was charged, then-Nebraska assistant Kevin Steele was given Williams's .22 caliber revolver. Then Steele and Osborne locked the gun in a cabinet.

"When the chief of police and I learned that a gun wanted in connection with a felony shooting was in Osborne's possession when it should have been immediately turned over to the police, then you have evidence that is being withheld," Lacey says.

When his actions came to light, Osborne said, "Frankly, if anybody had asked, we would have given it to them sooner. No charges had been filed, so we didn't think anybody was anxious about it." Osborne has said all along that he notified campus police about the gun. Last week Osborne conceded in an interview with SI that prosecutors were probably looking for the gun at the time he filed it away. "The weapon was missing when we asked[Williams] to get it. If we hadn't made him give us the gun, the police might never have gotten it."


40 Years of College Football's Sexual-Assault Problem:

University of Nebraska, 1993: Defensive lineman Christian Peter's punishment for being convicted of third-degree sexual assault? He was put on probation and missed one exhibition game. Peter, a future NFL draft pick, was accused by two other women of sexual assault during his time on campus and arrested a total of eight times for a range of offenses. Kathy Redmond, one of Peter's accusers, received threatening phone calls and had her car vandalized for reporting the assault. (Peter's teammate, Lawrence Phillips, was suspended for physically assaulting his girlfriend, but was reinstated by Cornhuskers head coach Tom Osborne in time to play in the 1995 national title game.) Osborne went on to serve three terms in Congress. Peter was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:21 PM on January 13, 2016 [3 favorites]

Coddled: food heated to just barely below the point where it bursts into steam, then held at that point of near-explosion until it's cooked. The coddled thing is then consumed, to the benefit of the coddler.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:35 PM on January 13, 2016 [8 favorites]

There was a recent report in JAMA Neurology describing a case of pathologically confirmed Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a 25-year-old former college football player. Just 25 fucking years old with significant and permanent neurological damage. Hopefully Phillips' body is going to a proper pathology lab to be examined.
posted by Blasdelb at 2:23 AM on January 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Husker Rebuff For Phillips's Assault Victim, The New York Times, April 19, 1996
How about some sympathy for a woman he assaulted, who lost her athletic scholarship.
posted by Carol Anne at 5:01 AM on January 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

Fuck football. Ban it for the children.
posted by aydeejones at 7:29 AM on January 14, 2016

I've been a Nebraska football fan for almost 40 years. (Though less so the last couple years with CTE.). Phillips did terrible things. It seemed like he couldn't not commit crimes (not an excuse!). He was one of the 4-5 best college football players I've seen (along with Vince Young, Reggie Bush, and Tommie Frazier).

I didn't know that stuff about Osborne interfering with investigations. College football is really thoroughly rotten.
posted by persona au gratin at 8:00 AM on January 14, 2016

And I hope they test his brain. Of course it won't have an effect on anyone's attitudes.
posted by persona au gratin at 8:02 AM on January 14, 2016

Meanwhile, in other news, the Rams will be moving into a new $1.8 billion stadium near Los Angeles. The mayhem will continue.
posted by charlesminus at 6:01 PM on January 14, 2016 [1 favorite]