JaMarcus Russell addresses his mistakes that led to NFL failure
JaMarcus Russell knows he isn’t blameless when it comes to the failure that was his NFL career.
The former first overall pick of the Oakland Raiders out of LSU joined The Pivot Podcast, where he addressed the mistakes he made that led to him being one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
“Everything that went wrong, if I could’ve done better. If it was to watch more film to make my game better. If it was to be in better shape, or whatever it may have been. I take fault in that,” began Russell. “I ain’t — but let’s get this straight, I ain’t asking for no pity from nobody under no circumstances. What happened, happened. You heard? Let’s move on.
“Football don’t last forever. It gave me a great start on life, man. I ain’t mad at nothing or nobody. I had no reason to be. S***, Al Davis blessed me, man. Guess what? I got some good friends. Some good family members. I’m going to ride this thing until the wheels fall off.”
Nevertheless, Russell told the crew that he’s learned a bevy of lessons, as failure is one of the best teachers in the world.
“Keep your s*** tight. Stuff that I didn’t do right, now I can give it to the youngsters, you know? That’s what I enjoy doing,” answered Russell. “Like it hasn’t been really a lesson for me, just stuff — I was a young kid, bro. 21-years old, bro. It was stuff I was learning, I was learning to be a professional athlete. I was learning to be a grown man. I was learning all this s***, bro. I was learning all this stuff. After that s*** ended, I learned quicker because I had more time to.
“I ain’t really had time to really grieve upon my family bro. I really wasn’t about to go to Oakland on the 28 on July, 2009. I just lost a family member like that really just f***ed me up.”
Then, Russell told the story about how he lost two family members while attempting to build an NFL career with the Raiders. While he was reaching for help, he felt like he was be drowned out amid the noise.
“As a young kid, I look back on it now like I was reaching out for help. Those meetings, we’ve got to get better, we’ve got to do this — s***, help me get better. Like, how the f*** I get better? Help me. Like the shit y’all doing right now, it didn’t help me none whatsoever. I can only do so much. I only know so much right now,” stated Russell. “Like, this is my second, third year. My first year I played, everybody that was here y’all done sent them away. Dante Culpepper. You know, Josh McCown. Y’all send these guys away. These vets. Goddamn Jeff Garcia. Y’all sent these guys away.
“These vets. 14, 15 years in the league. I can learn from these guys. But it didn’t go that way.”
A lot of things went sideways for JaMarcus Russell to contribute to his disappointing NFL career. It’s interesting to see the perfect storm that caused his flameout, but nobody can ever take away the fact that he was the No. 1 pick of the NFL Draft regardless.