Do you ever regret doing something in your life? Star wide receiver, Henry Ruggs lll, did something he is going to regret for the rest of his life. He was convicted of killing a woman and her dog in a car accident on November 2, 2021. On August 10, 2023 he was sentenced to 3-10 years in prison for a DUI (driving under the influence).
Henry Ruggs was one of the top receivers in his class in high school. He decided to commit to the University of Alabama his senior year. During Ruggs’s first year in college he did not play much. Once his sophomore year came around, Henry had a breakout year with 741 yards and eleven touchdowns. He decided to stay at Alabama for his junior year, and he had a great year with 746 yards and seven touchdowns. Ruggsthen decided to apply for the NFL draft and was chosen as the twelfth pick in the first round by the Las Vegas Raiders. Mr. Ruggs went on to have 452 total yards during his first season in Vegas. Starting the 2021 season, he started off hot averaging around seventy yards per game and was on track to be an all star player. This was finally the breakout year everyone was waiting for until Henry’s season was cut short after the seventh game of the season when the accident occurred.
On November 2, 2021, Ruggs was out with his friends at a club drinking. According to Katelyn Newberg of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Ruggs’s girlfriend, Kiara Kilgo-Washington, told police she and Ruggs were at Topgolf before the crash when she ordered two drinks for herself but did not know how many Ruggs had consumed. At around 3:30 am, Henry left with his girlfriend to go home. He then hit a woman and her dog going over one hundred and fifty miles per hour in his Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The lady and her dog died on the scene. Ruggs and his girlfriend were left with minor injuries. After breathalyzing Ruggs, they found that he was two times over the legal alcohol limit. Ruggs was then not taken into custody but was put on house arrest.
As soon as the Raiders front office found out about this incident, he was released from the team, and it looked like there was a good chance Henry’s football career was over. Finally, on August 10, 2023, Ruggs pleaded guilty in court to a felony charge of DUI resulting in death and a misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter. According to Elizabeth Merrill and Anthony Olivieri of ESPN Ruggs was sentenced to 3-10 years in prison.
Ruggs had one of the brightest futures in the NFL, and it is unfortunate for his career to end from this big mistake. This shows how quickly your life can turn on a dime and go from bad to worse by making poor decisions such as drinking and driving. For the coming years, Ruggs will stay in jail, and fans will have to wait and see if Henry has any chance of playing in the NFL upon his release from jail.
