It’s been a rough couple weeks for current, potential and former Oregon football players.
Here are just a few making ignominious headlines recently across the country.
First, former Oregon star and current Cleveland Browns running back Reuben Droughns, a seven-year NFL veteran, was arrested last week on one count of assault and two counts of harassment following a physicaldispute with his wife, Kellie Droughns, USA Today reported.
According to a Colorado sheriff’s department report, Droughns grabbed his wife and threw her to the ground before eventually throwing her outside after she told him she wanted a divorce.
If convicted, Droughns faces six to 18 months in jail for the assault charge and up to six months for the harassment charge.
That arrest occurred near the time two Oregon recruits – Marvin Johnson and Major Marquis Culbert – were arrested and charged with burglary and sexual abuse stemming from a Jan. 14 incident in Barnhart Hall where the two men allegedly groped two female residents and refused to leave, according to the Eugene Police Department.
Johnson, a 5-foot-10 cornerback from Compton, Calif., is officially listed on Oregon’s 2006 recruiting class, while Culbert has since signed with Nebraska.
Another of Oregon’s former recruits, Jurray Casey, who reportedly gave a soft verbal commitment to the Ducks last season, is being investigated as the alleged shooter in a Jan. 8 murder of a 17-year-old Los Angeles man, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.
Casey was not listed among Oregon’s 2006 recruiting class, and my guess is Duck fans won’t see him play in Eugene any time soon, unfortunately.
One with a troubled past who did make it to Eugene but can’t seem to keep his name out of headlines is former star running back Onterrio Smith.
His well-documented trouble with marijuana includes his dismissal from the University of Tennessee, his incident involving “The Original Whizzinator” (a prosthetic penis used to cheat drug tests) and his multiple violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy that eventually led to his release from the Minnesota Vikings in April.
Now it has come to this for Smith: The Star Tribune in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., reported that a humbled Smith signed a one-year contract to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League earlier this month.
The problem appears to be nationwide.
On Tuesday, Oklahoma quarterback Rhett Bomar pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of being a minor in possession of alcohol.
And who can forget Ramonce Taylor, the Texas running back who was caught with a whopping five pounds of marijuana in his car.
Here’s hoping we see more encouraging headlines nationwide in the upcoming month.