re: SI featuring Jamarcus in upcoming article

quote:

---

But Russell also spread considerable wealth around Mobile. If you live in town and have eaten Thanksgiving turkey through a food drive these past few years, there's a good chance Russell paid for it. He's bought supplies and library books for local schools and uniforms for local sports teams. When he heard about a family that had lost its home in a fire, he says he drove up, handed the mother $10,000 in cash and drove off. He underwrote the renovation of his church, Sure Word Outreach Ministries. New pews, new pulpit, new sound system, new carpet.

Russell recently noticed that an alarming number of his old Mobile neighbors were confined to wheelchairs. Sometimes it was diabetes. Sometimes, as in the case of a boyhood friend, Ralph Wiggins, it was because of a paralyzing gunshot wound. Russell bought supplies, and he and his cousin Daryl Davis built ramps at many of their homes. Last year Russell hosted a party at the park where, growing up, he spent countless hours playing sports. At the party he fed hundreds, and if kids could show him a report card of straight A's, Russell bought them bikes, MP3 players and GoPhones.

"If I do go broke," says Russell, who is unmarried and has no children, "it's going to be from providing for my neighborhood and my family."

---

I feel bad for him. So many talk shite, but they obviously don't know all the great things he's accomplished.

All John Gruden had to do to make the playoffs with Tampa Bay was to beat Jamarcus Russell. He couldn't do it.

quote:

---

I feel bad for him. So many talk shite, but they obviously don't know all the great things he's accomplished.

---

Yeah- I think losing his uncle at a time when he probably needed him most might have been a huge factor is failure on the field.

I was very impressed by what the article said about his work in the community.

I do wonder what his career would have been like if he had been drafted to another team, hell any other team. One thing that's clear is Jamarcus has trouble motivating himself, I wonder if a more disciplined enviroment would have spurred him to be the QB he was projected to be, or if he would have responded to it at all and washed out of the league just as fast.

Great article. I wonder how many of the critical comments made by posters on this thread were made by idiots who did not read it.

That was a really good piece. I was not surprised to see the passages that showed immaturity and a tendency to blame his circumstances for his failures. But what did surprise me was many, admittedly contradictory, quotes in which Russell seemed to understand that he had only himself to blame. At age 26, Russell still has time to get back into the NFL, but in my opinion, that will only happen once he realizes that it really is all about him and what he does or doesn't do. The CFL is a phone call away and it sounds like he has plenty of money left to hire Mackie Shilstone or some other fitness guru to get him ready. Maybe deep down JR doesn't want the phone to ring, and if he simply hangs out in Mobile, it never will. JR's has to choose, and only his deeds can tell us what choice he makes. I wish him well, regardless.

(no message)

quote:

---

He likes Drew Brees (though Russell says he throws off his back foot too much)

---

After reading that and this...

quote:

---

He loves Peyton Manning but worries about him. ("I can't tell a man what to do, and I know he loves the game," says Russell, "but he takes a hit and his neck could be f----- up for good. I'd hate that.")

---

I am 100% certain that he posts on The Rant.