this city's killing me (I want, I want, I want everything) in the heat of Los Angeles
This happened in 1995, i.e., three years before I got to Lincoln.
[Lawrence] Phillips rushed for 359 yards and seven touchdowns in Nebraska's first two games of 1995, before the episode the morning of Sept. 10, 1995. Phillips was awakened at 3 a.m., by a phone call from a girl who, friends said, wanted to drive a wedge between the running back and Phillips' ex-girlfriend Kate McEwen. The caller told Phillips that McEwen was staying at [teammate and eventual starting quarterback] Scott Frost's apartment. Phillips' high school coach said McEwen was the first girl Phillips ever cared about. He didn't know how to handle it when the two broke up.
Phillips drove to Frost's apartment complex, scaled the building, broke in through a third-story sliding door and found McEwen in the bathroom. He threw her to the floor and struck her several times to the face. Phillips then dragged her down stairs, where Frost and two neighbors pulled her away.
Phillips was arrested and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and trespassing. He was suspended the rest of September and October. Osborne, who initially dismissed Phillips from the team, reinstated the 20-year-old for the Iowa State game, a decision that, to this day, taints Osborne's national reputation. The legendary coach said Phillips could better deal with his anger if football was still part of his life.
Goddamn. Nowadays all we have from current players are DUI's and mysterious offenses that are not illegal, but are against team rules. And that is why some people my mother works with are not huge fans of Tom Osborne. Ah, it's a delicate balance - I'm pretty sure every coach has one of these, the player that should have been punished more but who wasn't, because he was needed on the team and because the coach needed to win and because the people wanted to win and did they want to win more than they wanted justice and AH. It's ugly, really, and not nearly as simple as procedurals like Law & Order (or God forbid, Bones) make it out to be. I sort of hope that Cody Glenn is Pelini's so we can just get that up and over with, but he doesn't seem to fit the model because he was suspended and never reinstated for whatever it is he did. I'm too jaded to believe Pelini will somehow rise above this trend, but I guess I can always hope. The fans, on the other hand. When the comments on Life in the Red are basically "that was a really punk thing to do to a teamate [Frost sleeping with McEwen]. And the story goes that he hid in the closet too, but I think the girlfriend did it on purpose to make LP jealous," I hold out little hope that the fans will change. And of course the national media's all like, "society still has Lawrence Phillips on its hands thanks to Tom Osborne"... which is not how I would summarize the whole sad situation.
Phillips, incidentally, could not "keep football in his life" and was sentenced just last October to ten years in a California state prison. He's from L.A. McEwen sued him in 2006 for various harm done to her during their two-year relationship. God knows what happened with that. Frost, on the other hand, is going to be receivers coach at Oregon next year. So it goes? His name's appropriate, I'll say that much - he's a hard-core blonde.
I think the part of the article I found most interesting was this:
During the fall of '99, the 49ers released Phillips for insubordination after Phillips argued with coach Steve Mariucci one day at practice. He never played another NFL snap.
[Former Nebraska and 49ers runningback Roger] Craig counseled Phillips during those months in San Francisco. Craig remembers a respectful, bright but lonely kid. Phillips trusted Craig. He told him about his past. About his troubles. About his family. Phillips came to Craig's house and had dinner. He spent the night. He played with Craig's five kids. But Phillips was depressed a lot, Craig said. Coaches yelled at him in practice like he was a rookie, Craig said.
"I was like, 'Give this guy a chance, man,'" Craig said. "He's only human. Don't yell at him and break his spirits. From day one, screaming and yelling at him. It's crazy. It just wasn't fair for him. It's like everybody had it out for Lawrence. Nobody understood Lawrence. You've got to understand him. Did anybody get a chance to talk to him? I just feel bad about the breaks he's been getting. It's not fair. He just needed somebody to help him out a little bit. He was like a kid that was searching for love. No one wanted to give him any love."
One of the things Nebraska prides itself on is providing a safe haven for guys from bad neighborhoods in L.A. - we have one guy on the team now who's had like, all his brothers killed via gang violence in L.A., so his family's obsessed with keeping him in Nebraska. I'm pessimistic about that situation, personally - ESPN mushy special notwithstanding - but if the guy can really rid himself of his demons then more power to him. I'm just not sure football or Nebraska's going to have more than a superficial impact on his future. Thunder Collins never went back to L.A., but he was still arrested on murder charges last year in Omaha. Trouble goes where it can, yes, but it follows people, not land.
[Lawrence] Phillips rushed for 359 yards and seven touchdowns in Nebraska's first two games of 1995, before the episode the morning of Sept. 10, 1995. Phillips was awakened at 3 a.m., by a phone call from a girl who, friends said, wanted to drive a wedge between the running back and Phillips' ex-girlfriend Kate McEwen. The caller told Phillips that McEwen was staying at [teammate and eventual starting quarterback] Scott Frost's apartment. Phillips' high school coach said McEwen was the first girl Phillips ever cared about. He didn't know how to handle it when the two broke up.
Phillips drove to Frost's apartment complex, scaled the building, broke in through a third-story sliding door and found McEwen in the bathroom. He threw her to the floor and struck her several times to the face. Phillips then dragged her down stairs, where Frost and two neighbors pulled her away.
Phillips was arrested and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and trespassing. He was suspended the rest of September and October. Osborne, who initially dismissed Phillips from the team, reinstated the 20-year-old for the Iowa State game, a decision that, to this day, taints Osborne's national reputation. The legendary coach said Phillips could better deal with his anger if football was still part of his life.
Goddamn. Nowadays all we have from current players are DUI's and mysterious offenses that are not illegal, but are against team rules. And that is why some people my mother works with are not huge fans of Tom Osborne. Ah, it's a delicate balance - I'm pretty sure every coach has one of these, the player that should have been punished more but who wasn't, because he was needed on the team and because the coach needed to win and because the people wanted to win and did they want to win more than they wanted justice and AH. It's ugly, really, and not nearly as simple as procedurals like Law & Order (or God forbid, Bones) make it out to be. I sort of hope that Cody Glenn is Pelini's so we can just get that up and over with, but he doesn't seem to fit the model because he was suspended and never reinstated for whatever it is he did. I'm too jaded to believe Pelini will somehow rise above this trend, but I guess I can always hope. The fans, on the other hand. When the comments on Life in the Red are basically "that was a really punk thing to do to a teamate [Frost sleeping with McEwen]. And the story goes that he hid in the closet too, but I think the girlfriend did it on purpose to make LP jealous," I hold out little hope that the fans will change. And of course the national media's all like, "society still has Lawrence Phillips on its hands thanks to Tom Osborne"... which is not how I would summarize the whole sad situation.
Phillips, incidentally, could not "keep football in his life" and was sentenced just last October to ten years in a California state prison. He's from L.A. McEwen sued him in 2006 for various harm done to her during their two-year relationship. God knows what happened with that. Frost, on the other hand, is going to be receivers coach at Oregon next year. So it goes? His name's appropriate, I'll say that much - he's a hard-core blonde.
I think the part of the article I found most interesting was this:
During the fall of '99, the 49ers released Phillips for insubordination after Phillips argued with coach Steve Mariucci one day at practice. He never played another NFL snap.
[Former Nebraska and 49ers runningback Roger] Craig counseled Phillips during those months in San Francisco. Craig remembers a respectful, bright but lonely kid. Phillips trusted Craig. He told him about his past. About his troubles. About his family. Phillips came to Craig's house and had dinner. He spent the night. He played with Craig's five kids. But Phillips was depressed a lot, Craig said. Coaches yelled at him in practice like he was a rookie, Craig said.
"I was like, 'Give this guy a chance, man,'" Craig said. "He's only human. Don't yell at him and break his spirits. From day one, screaming and yelling at him. It's crazy. It just wasn't fair for him. It's like everybody had it out for Lawrence. Nobody understood Lawrence. You've got to understand him. Did anybody get a chance to talk to him? I just feel bad about the breaks he's been getting. It's not fair. He just needed somebody to help him out a little bit. He was like a kid that was searching for love. No one wanted to give him any love."
One of the things Nebraska prides itself on is providing a safe haven for guys from bad neighborhoods in L.A. - we have one guy on the team now who's had like, all his brothers killed via gang violence in L.A., so his family's obsessed with keeping him in Nebraska. I'm pessimistic about that situation, personally - ESPN mushy special notwithstanding - but if the guy can really rid himself of his demons then more power to him. I'm just not sure football or Nebraska's going to have more than a superficial impact on his future. Thunder Collins never went back to L.A., but he was still arrested on murder charges last year in Omaha. Trouble goes where it can, yes, but it follows people, not land.