Carly Newton
An alarming number of NFL players are continuing to get in trouble with the law and sometimes ruining their careers in the process. One team in particular, the Las Vegas Raiders, has experienced this problem with two of their young players most recently.
The past month has been tough for the Raiders and their fans, and it’s not because their team is playing poorly.
What started out as a promising start to the season for the Raiders, ultimately went downhill due to off-the-field issues with their head coach and their players.
After Head Coach Jon Gruden resigned in early October, the team seemed to be bouncing back from the bad publicity and focusing their attention on winning football games, but unfortunately that did not last long.
In the early morning hours Nov. 2, now former Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. He was driving 156 miles per hour when he struck another vehicle at a red light in Las Vegas, killing a woman and her dog. The woman in the car, Tina Tintor, was only 23 years old.
According to CNN, Tintor’s family released a statement following the accident.
“Tina’s tragic loss has devastated her family beyond a grief they could ever comprehend. Family was everything to Tina, and she was the light of her parents’ life. Tina lived in Las Vegas since she was a baby. She loved her 3-year-old Golden Retriever, Max, who passed alongside her Tuesday morning,” the statement said.
Ruggs, who is only 22 years old, could face up to 20 years in prison. Whether or not he’ll get the full 20 years has yet to be determined, but considering he took someone’s life, he deserves to get the full sentence.
Two young lives are now forever ruined because of Ruggs’ stupid decision to drink and drive. There is no logical reason that anyone should be getting behind the wheel while intoxicated — there are so many options at anyone’s disposal to prevent this from happening in today’s age.
Ruggs could have gotten an Uber, a Lyft or even hired his own personal driver with all the money he has made from playing football.
It is heartbreaking that this preventable situation happened, and hopefully the families for both Tintor and Ruggs can find peace and heal from this tragedy.
Damon Arnette was the other Raiders player who caused a controversy for the team.
Just a few days after the Ruggs incident, a video surfaced of Arnette swinging a firearm around in a video while issuing death threats.
Both incidents happening within a few days of each other was not a good look for the Raiders, who just moved their team to Las Vegas last year. A city known for partying was probably not the best place to relocate an NFL franchise to.
Despite the bad timing of Arnette’s video being released, the Raiders handled the situation as best as they could given the circumstances — both Ruggs and Arnette were rightfully released from the team following each incident.
Hopefully, young players around the NFL learn from both of these sad situations and become more responsible because of it.
