Lawrence Phillips

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Lawrence Phillips bigraphy, stories - Player of American and Canadian football

Lawrence Phillips : biography

May 12, 1975 –

Lawrence Lamond Phillips (born May 12, 1975) is a former professional American football and Canadian football running back. Phillips’s trouble with the law and inability to produce in the NFL have led many critics to label him as a bust.

Early life and career

Phillips was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, but by his teen years had made his way to Southern California, spending most of them in a foster home. He attended West Covina High School in West Covina, California for his freshman and sophomore years. He was a varsity starter both on offense, running back and defense, outside linebacker as a sophomore. He attended Baldwin Park High School in Baldwin Park, California for his junior and senior years, winning back-to-back CIF Championships. His sterling numbers attracted the attention of the University of Nebraska.

In 1993, his freshman year at Nebraska, Phillips gradually worked his way up the depth chart. He came off the bench to rush for 137 yards and a touchdown in the Huskers’ 14-13 win at Pac-10 champion UCLA. In the second half of the 1994 Orange Bowl against Florida State, Phillips again came off the bench and sparked the Huskers’ ground game, carrying 13 times for 64 of the Huskers 183 rushing yards against a formidable Seminole defense. All but one of Phillips’s carries came in the fourth quarter, and he also scored on a 12-yard touchdown run. The game established him as the primary running back in the Nebraska offense.

By his sophomore year, Phillips became the focal point of the offense because of injuries to quarterbacks Tommie Frazier and Brook Berringer. Phillips tied a school record by rushing for 100 yards or more in 11 straight games in 1994 despite frequently playing against eight- or nine-man defensive fronts and fighting a thumb injury. Phillips’s performance in the Orange Bowl was key to Nebraska’s securing its undefeated season and national championship in 1994. Against the Miami Hurricanes, who had the top-rated defense in college football that year (with future NFL Pro Bowlers Warren Sapp and Ray Lewis), Phillips had 96 yards on 19 carries, including a 25-yard run that was the longest rushing play the Hurricanes had allowed all season. During the regular season, Phillips ran for 1,722 yards, still a Nebraska record for a sophomore.

The following year, Phillips became an early front-runner for the Heisman Trophy. During the Huskers’ win over Michigan State in their second game of the season, Phillips had 206 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns on 22 carries. After two games on the season, he was averaging more than 11 yards per carry and had scored six touchdowns. After the team had returned from East Lansing, Michigan, Phillips was arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Kate McEwen, a basketball player for the Nebraska women’s team. Phillips was subsequently suspended from the Husker football team by head coach Tom Osborne. The case became a source of great controversy and media attention, with perceptions arising that Osborne was coddling a star player by not kicking Phillips off the team permanently. Osborne defended the decision, saying that abandoning Phillips might do more harm than good. In Osborne’s view, the best way to help Phillips was within the structured environment of the football program. Osborne reinstated Phillips for the Iowa State game, although touted freshman Ahman Green continued to start. Phillips also contributed against Kansas and Oklahoma.

Osborne, despite pressure from the national media, named Phillips the starter for the Fiesta Bowl, which pitted No. 1 Nebraska against No. 2 Florida for the national championship. In the game, Phillips rushed for 165 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries and also scored a touchdown on a 16-yard reception in the Cornhuskers’ 62-24 victory. The performance boosted Phillips’s draft stock. With Osborne’s encouragement, he decided to turn pro a year early.

Professional football career

St. Louis Rams

With his strong performance, Phillips was drafted sixth overall in the 1996 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams despite his considerable character issues; several teams with higher picks let it be known that they passed on him due to his off-the-field troubles. He was widely expected to be selected by the new Baltimore Ravens with the fourth pick to fill their vacant running back position. However, they decided to select the best available player regardless of position and selected future eleven time pro-bowler Jonathan Ogden. During the draft, ESPN analyst Joe Theisman stated in regard to Phillips: "Everybody’s called him the best player in the draft."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QESfiq4jpDY The Rams thought so highly of Phillips that on the same day of the draft, they traded his predecessor, Jerome Bettis, to the Pittsburgh Steelers.