A few days ago was the 13th anniversary of the Oakland Raiders selecting quarterback JaMarcus Russell out of LSU in the 2007 NFL Draft.
Russell actually held out of training camp that year while negotiating a six-year, $68 million contract with $31.5 million guaranteed. Huge mistake by the Raiders as he would go on to play in just 31 games before his career would come to an end.
Russell was obviously a bust, but his biggest issue was his work ethic that nobody on the Raiders seemed to find out about until after they selected him.
Russell wasn’t a fan of watching film, as we know from the viral story of coaches giving him blank cassettes to see if he was actually viewing them. He was not as he lied about watching them all when asked.
It only got worse as one of his ex-teammates told a story of having to stop by Wendy’s to get him cheeseburgers to bribe him into watching film.
Russell finished his career with 4,083 yards passing, 18 touchdowns and 23 interceptions.
