In what has to be about the least surprising sports news in a long time, California prison officials announced today that Lawrence Phillips is dead at age 40. Apparent suicide, facing the death penalty for murdering his cellmate on top of the 31 years he was already serving.
If there is a cautionary tale as to why football needs to be abolished across the board, Lawrence Phillips may be one good place to start. A Nebraska Crimehusker of the first order, the only thing which might separate him from "complete piece of shit" levels is if we find out this ticking time bomb had CTE since about high school and was already beyond all semblance of redemption on a brain-damage level -- and not simply on a conduct one.
Whether brain damage had anything to do with Phillips' reign of terror or not, that he died as he was is not surprising in the least. That he was given any real chance to be otherwise is a pure result of him being Football Man.
This is one of those brains that those of us paying attention damn well better see tested for CTE, as a function of the victims he harmed and killed. We can really only hope that this was a Chris Henry situation -- long gone far before his time. Either way, there is massive complicity and coverup in his criminality which extends purely because of Football Nation America.
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