12/21/24
April 15, 2011
‘Life coach’ gives up on QB Russell: Nearly four years after JaMarcus Russell became the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, his playing career may have completely bottomed out after “life coach” John Lucas asked Russell to leave Houston recently, two sources close to the quarterback told Yahoo! Sports.
I am surprised that someone with so little motivation could achieve as much as he has. How did he have so much success in college? College football is tons of work. Are Les Miles and Jimbo Fisher just motivational geniuses?
posted by bperk at 09:51 AM on April 15, 2011
$31 million+292 lbs at at a Redskins work out + a codeine bust = "Purple Drank" The guy is hooked and if he cannot connect with John Lucas who went through tough times himself, he is the biggest bust/loser in NFL/sports history, NO QUESTION. I'm sure he does not care and will be broke in 5 yrears.
posted by gfinsf at 10:22 AM on April 15, 2011
NFL quarterbacks take a brutal beating. Defensive players are bigger, faster and better than what Russell faced in college.
Maybe Russell just looks at the tens of millions sitting in the bank and can't find the motivation to subject himself to the punishment of the game any more.
posted by rcade at 10:27 AM on April 15, 2011
I just can't see how if your a professional athelete, you would need to be motivated to continue performing at the level it took to reach the pros.
Monetarily; One would assume that once you see those millions in your account you would do everything you could to ensure that those millions would stay there or increase and that would be enough motivation.
posted by BornIcon at 10:40 AM on April 15, 2011
In a year or two, Jillian Michaels will have him and Kirstie Alley down on all fours in fugly sweats bungeed to the front of a Hummer like Jack LaLanne, begging her to let them call home while her assistant finishes filling out an Iditarod entry form.
posted by beaverboard at 10:58 AM on April 15, 2011
BornIcon: If you won $31 million in the Powerball Lottery this week, how motivated would you be in your day job?
I'd completely lose all motivation for just $1 million.
posted by rcade at 11:18 AM on April 15, 2011
I am surprised that someone with so little motivation could achieve as much as he has. How did he have so much success in college? College football is tons of work. Are Les Miles and Jimbo Fisher just motivational geniuses?
As an LSU fan who watched JaMarcus several times in person and just about every weekend during college football season on TV, he got by in college on pure athleticism and being surrounded by really good athletes at skill positions (Dwayne Bowe and Early Doucet in particular) who helped mask his shortcomings by being able to get behind defenses for big plays, jump or dive for poorly thrown balls, etc. His decision-making was always shaky, and he consistently bottled crunch time in big games. Through the end of Saban into the Miles era, the LSU teams were stacked, talent-wise, and it is worth noting that the Tigers won BCS national championships just on either side of Russell's career (two years before he took over the starting role and the year after he left).
I had a very strong feeling that pro teams would fall in love with his tools and measurables but that he would have very little chance of being a consistent performer in the NFL, where his already shaky decision-making would be exacerbated by having a fraction of the time in which to make decisions and where the talent discrepancy compared to what he saw in college (both in terms of the opposing talent overall and the opposing talent relative to his own teammates) was so vast.
posted by holden at 11:42 AM on April 15, 2011
BornIcon: If you won $31 million in the Powerball Lottery this week, how motivated would you be in your day job?
I'd completely lose all motivation for just $1 million.
Don't get me wrong rcade, I would most definately lose interest in my day job if I had $31 million reasons to do so but I find it sad that some pro athletes who worked most of their lives to reach the pinnacle of their respective careers would just lay down after one huge payday.
By the way, if I won $31 million dollars playing the Powerball, winning that amount would only allow me to continue playing the lottery but at a much higher volume.
posted by BornIcon at 11:55 AM on April 15, 2011
If you won $31 million in the Powerball Lottery this week, how motivated would you be in your day job?
I'd quit my day job and have more time to focus on becoming a better athlete.
posted by cixelsyd at 02:09 PM on April 15, 2011
Looking at the upcoming NFL draft and wondering: "Is there another JaMarcus Russell on the board?"
posted by graymatters at 02:25 PM on April 15, 2011
It looks like another athlete has decided that "Team Green" is the only one to play for. That's the team coached by Grant, Franklin, Jackson, and the rest of them. Sure he put in the work for as long as he had to in college. That's because the payday hadn't come yet. As soon as it did, Mr. Russell looks only at the short team, and as rcade suggests, decides he's able to just take it easy. I believe that there once was a study done on lottery winners once that found most of them had quit working and wasted the money. They wound up worse off than if they hadn't hit the lottery. Look up JaMarcus Russell in about 10 years and see where he is with his life.
posted by Howard_T at 04:20 PM on April 15, 2011
I'm a bit surprised this doesn't happen more often. Other than Russell, there really isn't another high pick I can think of who flat out didn't want to be an NFL player. Some may have sucked and blown their chance because of off-field issues, but who else really never wanted to do anything but get that rookie deal and basically stop giving a shit?
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 06:11 PM on April 15, 2011
Maybe he was sick of all the bullies involved in sports, from coaches to teammates to fans to himself. It can take a lot of guts to quit.
Chances are better that he quit, and Lucas quit on him, because he has a drug problem that he won't bring himself to address yet. I hope he can find a way to help himself someday; everyone could do with a little less pain. Of course, there will always be a few people lining up to push him right back to square one if he ever does straighten out.
I feel a little sorry for him, I mean everybody has the right to be a dick, sure, but some of the judgments you see are a bit outlandish. I guess it's to be expected.
posted by Hugh Janus at 06:18 PM on April 15, 2011
Life itself is a life coach. He is wasting himself if he is unwilling to learn from what has happened and move forward.
posted by FonGu at 08:55 AM on April 16, 2011
My mother had such high hopes for JaMarcus...being from Mobile and all. She has been SO disappointed.