Darrell Anthony Russell, Junior. was an American football defensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders and Washington Redskins of the National Football League.
Background
Darrell Anthony Russell, Junior. was born in Pensacola, Florida. His mother, Eleanor Russell, divorced in 1986 from Darrell Anthony Russell Senior when their only child was nine years old, and moved from Florida to Southern California. Russell grew up in a rough part of San Diego just a few blocks from Lincoln Kennedy.
Education
Russell graduated from Saint Augustine High School. Russell attended the University of Southern California and was taken second overall in the 1997 NFL Draft by the Raiders.
Career
He died in a car crash near Los Angeles after being indefinitely banned from the NFL for repeated violations of the league"s substance abuse policy. At 6-foot-5-inch (196 cm), 320-pounds Russell ran the 40-yard dash in 4.8 seconds. Russell"s seven-year, $22 million contract in 1997 was at the time the richest rookie contract ever signed in the NFL. He went on to have 28.5 career sacks.
After making the Pro Bowl in 1998 and 1999, averaging ten sacks per year, Russell was suspended four games in 2001 for failing to comply with the NFL"s drug policy.
Shortly after that, he tested positive for another banned substance and was given a one-year suspension that later was made indefinite by the league. Russell"s positive drug test in 2004 was his seventh infraction of the league"s policy.
Russell missed 1½ years while serving two league suspensions before he played in eight games in 2003 for the Washington Redskins. His last NFL experience was in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp in 2004.
NFL stats
Key
General Practice: games played
COMB: combined tackles
TOTAL: total tackles
Air Service Training: assisted tackles
SACK: sacks
FF: forced fumbles
First Revision: fumble recoveries
First Revision YDS: fumble return yards
INT: interceptions
International Rectifier YDS: interception return yards
AVG International Rectifier : average interception return
Liquefied Natural Gas: longest interception return
Territorial Decoration: interceptions returned for touchdown
Privatdozent : passes defensed
He was accused in 2002 of videotaping the rape of a woman—who had been drugged with GHB—by two friends, but prosecutors dropped the charges.
Death
Both men were found unconscious and taken to area hospitals, where they were pronounced dead.