Raiders DT Russell Was Good, Could Have Been Great

The Las Vegas Raiders have a long history of good and great players, and defensive tackle Darrell Russell was one of the good that could have been great.

Darrell Russell was an outstanding defensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders who could have been better and perhaps their best ever had he avoided off-the-field problems.

The Raiders selected the 6-5 325-pound Russell with the second overall pick of the 1997 NFL Draft after he was named winner of the 1996 Morris Trophy as the best lineman on the West Coast after recording 19 tackles for losses as a senior for the Trojans.

The seven-year, $22-million contract that Russell signed with the Raiders in 1997 was, at the time, the richest rookie contract in NFL history.

Russell moved into the starting lineup midway through his rookie season with the Raiders, when he made 44 tackles and 3½ sacks to be named to Pro Football Weekly’s All-Rookie Team, but his career really took off the never year when he became a full-time starter and filled up the stat sheet.

While starting all 16 games for the Silver and Black in 1998, Russell made 64 tackles, had ten sacks, forced three fumbles, and recovered one on his way to being selected first-team All-Pro and picked to play in the Pro Bowl.

Russell followed that up the next season by making 45 tackles plus 9½ sacks, 15 tackles for losses plus four passes broken up, and again received All-Pro and Pro Bowl recognition.

But that was as good as it would get.

“(Russell) became so big and so much into himself that he didn’t want to do what it took to stay in the league,” Raiders teammate Lincoln Kennedy said. “He had a couple of chances, and he could just never right the ship or get it right.

“ … As much as I tried to help him, I had to realize that he’s ultimately a grown man, he’s going to have to make his own decisions. That’s always the way I’ve treated people, with respect. The reason I’m so upset because I wish I could have done more.”

Russell’s problems off the field started when he failed a drug test in 1999, something his lawyer attributed to “secondhand smoke,” but two years later, he was suspended four games by the NFL for a second violation, this time for refusing to be tested.

His problems continued to pile up as Russell again tested positive for a banned substance and, this time, he was given a one-year suspension that wiped out his 2002 season, and the Raiders eventually released him.

In September of 2002, Alameda County prosecutors dropped rape charges against Russell, claiming they could not prove he videotaped a woman being raped by two friends.

Russell missed 1½ years while serving two league suspensions before he played in eight games in 2003 for the Washington Redskins. Still, the positive drug tests kept coming, and the NFL suspended Russell indefinitely.

After signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he accumulated his seventh positive drug test, and he never played a game with the Bucs, who released Russell at the end of training camp in 2004.

With that, Russell’s NFL career was over after parts of six seasons.

In 83 games, 75 of them with the Raiders, he made 235 tackles, including 35 for losses, had 28½ sacks, five passes broken up, five forced fumbles, and three recovered.

“He was a hell of a guy,” Raiders receiver Jerry Porter said of Russell. “He just never found the strength to get going again after the all the trouble he got into.”

To complete this tragic story, in 2005, the 29-year-old Russell was riding in a car driven at high speed in Los Angeles by his former USC teammate, Mike Bastianelli, also 29. The car went out of control and hit a curb, a tree, a newsstand, a fire hydrant, a light pole, another tree, and an unoccupied bus.

Russell and Bastianelli both were killed.

The Raiders' offseason workout schedule is as follows:

OTA Offseason workouts: May 22-23, May 25, May 31-June 2, June 12-15

Mandatory Minicamp: June 6-8

Rookie Minicamp: May 12-14

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