Last week, Mario Herrera Jr. posited that the Dallas Cowboys should basically be waiting at the prison gate when Henry Ruggs becomes a free man.
Mario is a great writer and very knowledgeable, especially about football and the Dallas Cowboys. But my response to him on this point is simple and straightforward.
My brother in Christ, have you lost your dang mind?
Or to put it another way: there is no reason whatsoever that the Dallas Cowboys should take on Ruggs.
And that applies to every NFL team. Every team in the Canadian Football League, or any other professional sports league.
Ruggs should be considered as radioactive as Reactor 4 in Chernobyl. For those of you born in the 21st Century, that’s the nuclear power plant the Russians managed to blow up back in 1986.
Nobody goes near the place unless they absolutely have to.
No team should go near Ruggs and none of them will ever be in so desperate a need to so either.
The Death Of A Woman, A Dog, And A Career
In November 2021, an intoxicated Ruggs drove his Corvette at speeds reaching 156 MPH on the streets of Las Vegas in the early morning hours.
He plowed into a Rav-4 being driven by 23-year-old Tina Tintor. Her dog was a passenger in her car.
The impact sent Tintor’s car hundreds of feet down the road where it burst into flames.
Tintor and her dog survived the impact but were trapped inside and burned to death.
Ruggs was arrested, tried, and convicted. He was only sentenced to three-to-10 years.
He will be eligible for parole in August 2026 and is reported training to be in shape for a comeback if paroled.
Ruggs’ Apology Not Enough
Ruggs recently apologized to the family of the woman he killed that night. That’s commendable.
By all accounts, he is truly sorry for his actions, and their consequences, that night.
But if he truly wants to make amends, playing NFL football is not the path forward for him. He should look at the example of Dwayne Goodrich instead.
The former Cowboys cornerback made a bad choice behind the wheel of a car and killed two men. He nearly killed a third.
Goodrich did his time in prison.
But instead of trying to get back into the game as a player, he instead turned his attention, and his time, to trying to help others avoid his fate.
Ruggs would be better served following Goodrich’s post-prison lead. He will do much more good that way than he would scoring touchdowns on any football field.
Frankly, only when he can restore Tintor and her dog to the lives he took away from them, only then should he be allowed to regain his former life in the NFL.
A PR Nightmare
The biggest roadblock will be the publicity that will land on any team that would even think of signing him after he is released.
I’m not sure any team, even Jerry Jones, who is infamous for taking on players with baggage, would want to deal with that fallout.
Redemption is a good thing. Ruggs should have a chance to redeem himself in society.
Just not in uniform on an NFL playing field.
His path lies elsewhere.
He owes Tintor and her family that much at least.
