John Lucas Playing ‘Big Brother’ To JaMarcus Russell

Added on Sep 26, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

One of my best friends is a huge Oakland Raider fan, and to hear him tell it now unemployed quarterback JaMarcus Russell is the worst human being to ever walk the face of the earth. Now, I’m not sure that I’d file the guy my friend refers to as ‘JaMinkus’ away with Pol Pot and Hitler but he’s definitely one of the bigger NFL busts in recent years. Russell went from the first overall pick in the NFL draft to out of the league in the unbelievable span of two years. Russell never seemed to get the mental component of being an NFL quarterback and the fact he did most of his training with a knife and fork didn’t help things either. Before this season, Russell showed up at mini-camp doing his best Orson Welles impression and weighing close to three bills. Not long after, the Raiders traded for Jason Campbell and released Russell despite the fact they owed him $9.45 million for this season. Things haven’t exactly gone well for ‘Jaminkus’ since–in July he was arrested for alleged possession of codeine, which was found in his home and likely bound for a batch of ‘purple drank’–essentially an African American version of moonshine popular in the Southern hip hop community. As the photo accompanying this article shows, he really hit rock bottom when he started wearing Bill Cosby’s hand-me-down sweaters.

That’s the bad news–the good news is that Russell is trying to make better life choices and get back to the NFL. He’s apparently become the protege of former NBA standout John Lucas, and Lucas has taken on the role of ‘life coach’ for Russell. Former NBA Players Association Director Charles Grantham brought the two men together thinking that Russell would benefit from Lucas’ influence. Lucas went through similar off court struggles and made it back to the NBA, and Grantham thought he’d be a good role model for Russell. Russell was approached about working with Lucas during last season and declined thinking it would give a bad impression to the public and media (presumably opposed to the impression given by eating yourself out of a starting quarterback job). He was approached by Grantham again during the summer and was enthusiastic about getting some help from Lucas.

The two men have been training together in Houston for the past month, and Lucas apparently has beaten Marcus into better shape than he was in during the NFL season last year. They even Tweet back and forth every morning with inspirational messages like:

Good morning!!! Workout No. 1. John Lucas came early today. #letsgetit.

Unlike my Raider fan friend, I don’t think Russell is an inherently bad guy and if someone in the NFL will give a scumbag like Michael Vick a second chance surely someone will give a former #1 overall draft pick another shot as well. Russell could just need a dose of maturity and discipline, and hopefully after working with Lucas he’ll realize to make better choices in the future and take advantage of another opportunity if it comes along.