Reginald O'Keith Rogers (born January 21, 1964 in Sacramento, California) is a former professional American football defensive tackle who played four seasons in the National Football League for the Detroit Lions (1987–1988), the Buffalo Bills (1991), and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1992). He is also the younger brother of former Cleveland Browns safety Don Rogers, who died of cocaine poisoning in June 1986. Rogers also has six children; twins Reggie & Regina, Amanda, Brittany, Isiah, and Jackie.
Rogers was chosen seventh overall by the Lions in the 1987 NFL Draft. However, he only played six games of his rookie season due to a slew of emotional problems, even spending time in a counseling center. His sophomore season ended after only five games when his car struck another vehicle and killed three teenagers. He was later found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.15, almost double the legal limit of 0.08. The Lions waived him in July 1989, not because of the felony charges, but because he broke his neck in the collision. In 1990, he was convicted of vehicular homicide and sentenced to 16 months in prison. After brief stints with the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers out of prison, Rogers was out of football entirely by the end of the 1992 season.
Rogers is often considered one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history. In 2008, ESPN named him the 13th-biggest bust since the AFL-NFL merger. A year earlier, Yahoo! Sports named him the worst #7 pick since the merger.
On November 26, 2008, Rogers was involved in a hit-and-run collision in Tukwila, Washington that resulted in his arrest and a charge of DUI. It was his fifth arrest for DUI in the state of Washington, dating back to his college days at the University of Washington.
Famous quotes containing the words reggie and/or rogers:
“TV has changed!”
—Roger Spottiswoode, U.S. screenwriter, Walter Hill, and Larry Gross. Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy)
“When we choose to be parents, we accept another human being as part of ourselves, and a large part of our emotional selves will stay with that person as long as we live. From that time on, there will be another person on this earth whose orbit around us will affect us as surely as the moon affects the tides, and affect us in some ways more deeply than anyone else can. Our children are extensions of ourselves in ways our parents are not, nor our brothers and sisters, nor our spouses.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)