A Tackle Which Could Not Be Broken

The sad saga of former Nebraska running back running back Lawrence Phillips has ended, as Phillips was found dead in his prison cell this morning. The death is being investigated as a suspected suicide.

As gifted as Phillips was on the field, he was equally poor in decision making in life off the field. With Phillips facing life in prison, he was being held accountable, appropriately so, for some of those actions, some very serious in nature.

We wrote about Phillips back in April of 2015, noting that a lacking toolbox of skills to get through life tackled him. In the post, we noted 1620 The Zone Sharp & Benning co-host Damon Benning, a former 'Husker tailback who once roomed with Phillips, shared his conflicted thoughts on Phillips with an extremely sincere, emotional and eye opening reflection of sad series of events which led to the position this gifted but troubled individual finds himself in.

One tackle Lawrence could not avoid was his troubled upbringing, where he was abandoned and abused among other negative things. Phillips, who was smart and personable on occasion, was and is infested with demons he is ill-equipped to escape from.

Former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne was reached for comment, and said the following: "All his correspondence with me in spite of circumstances have been fairly upbeat," Osborne said. "Things weren't going in a good direction for him. All I can say is I feel very bad," Osborne said. "I guess we feel like we did what we could for him. Whatever it was, it wasn't enough."

Previously, Osborne had said  “I never got any indication that he had lost hope or given up, But when you’re that far away, it’s hard to know just from a letter what’s going on. We certainly tried to do what we could in Lincoln. But I feel bad because whatever we did apparently wasn’t enough. It’s a tremendous waste of a life that could’ve gone in a different direction. Who knows where Lawrence is now, but it could’ve turned out a lot better than it did. I’m really sorry about that."

Another life, which after a very poor start had chances to turn the corner to happiness and prosperity, ends in sadness. At the end of the day, Phillips could not escape the demons of his past. Perhaps Lawrence is at peace now.