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Lawrence Phillips at it again...

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Check this out: Amazing!

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=ap-osborne-phillips&prov=ap&type=lgns

Osborne: Phillips wanted to get back into football
By CHUCK BROWN, Associated Press Writer
August 23, 2005

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Troubled former Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips contacted Tom Osborne recently about getting back into professional football.

The former Cornhuskers coach, now a U.S. Congressman, said Tuesday that Phillips called him about two or three months ago.

Osborne said he told Phillips, who starred on Osborne's 1994 and '95 national champion Nebraska teams, that he probably had used up all of his chances.

``I think he pretty well had run the string out,'' Osborne said.

Phillips was arrested in Los Angeles on Sunday after allegedly running his car into three teenagers he argued with during a pickup football game. At the time Phillips was wanted on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend.

Phillips was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and domestic abuse and held without bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Web site.

The teenagers were treated at a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Osborne said Phillips told him that he had been helping coach high school football.

``It sounded like he was getting things on track,'' Osborne said. ``I'm just really embarrassed and sorry for the people that he hurt. I did everything I could to help him, but apparently it wasn't enough.''

Phillips has a history of high-profile legal trouble dating back to his days at Nebraska. In 1995, Phillips pleaded no contest to assaulting a girlfriend.

Osborne came under intense scrutiny for allowing Phillips back on to the team after the running back served a suspension.

The St. Louis Rams drafted Phillips sixth overall in 1996 despite his trouble at Nebraska. The Ram released Phillips in 1997 for insubordination.

Phillips joined Miami later in 1997 but was released after pleading no contest to striking a woman in a nightclub.

Phillips signed with the San Francisco 49ers in 1999 but was later released for missing a practice. Phillips was dropped by two Canadian Football League teams for behavioral problems.

In 2003, he was charged in Quebec with assault and sexual assault.

Phillips was not able to appear in court on the charges after Canada denied him entry because of his criminal history.
 
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I missed this article calling out Osborne the other day. Saraceno hits him pretty hard.

usatoday.com/saraceno

Phillips, Osborne still don't get it

As a member of Congress, Tom Osborne has ideas on many topics of interest — the spiraling production of methamphetamine, renewable fuel standards, even the banishment of alcohol advertising relating to intercollegiate athletics. He is an industrious, pious, educated man of letters and distinction who wants to become governor of Nebraska.
Yes, the Honorable Tom Osborne has much to offer for public consideration but precious little to say about the dishonorable Lawrence Phillips.

I wondered what the man who tried to help Phillips a decade ago, at the loss of considerable credibility, might have to say about his former player's unabated troubles with the law. So I called his office Monday.

"Congressman Osborne does not have a comment regarding Lawrence Phillips," said aide Erin Hagge. By Tuesday, Osborne was quoted by the Associated Press as saying he was embarrassed and sorry for the people who were hurt, that he did everything he could to help.

But Phillips has been hurting a lot of people, mostly himself, for years. What took so long, Congressman?

I guess there's no political currency in dredging up the past, particularly when it comes to a counterfeit football hero who last summer pawned one of his Big Eight championship rings for $20 in Las Vegas. In the meantime, Osborne's former star running back continues to scamper circles around the judicial system with his favorite winning phrase: no contest.

Phillips, facing suspicion of attempted murder and domestic violence charges, is in more trouble on the 10th anniversary of beating his girlfriend at the University of Nebraska. He is jailed in Los Angeles after allegedly trying to run over — with a stolen car, no less — a trio of teens he joined in a game of sandlot football.

Maybe he just needs another chance, like the kind given by coaches such as Osborne, eager for athletes with uncommon ability despite sketchy character.

A couple of years ago, Phillips was released by the Montreal Alouettes after he was charged with the sexual assault of a girlfriend. And there was the time he pleaded no contest to allegations that he beat a woman in Los Angeles. That came two years after Miami cut him after he was charged with striking a woman in the face at a nightclub (again, no contest). Did we mention his arrest for driving under the influence while with St. Louis or his confrontation with police in Omaha?

Osborne doesn't have to defend or try to explain the erratic behavior anymore because Phillips is no longer his problem, nor that of 'Husker nation. I thought it might be appropriate if he stopped viewing his former player's glass of potential as half-full and uttered these words: "I was wrong about Lawrence Phillips."

There was a time when Osborne was being paid, in part, to address such issues. He was the powerful coach of a football factory. Phillips was his star on offense, a player Osborne suspended but reinstated in time to complete a national championship season. The decision ignited a firestorm of criticism of the coach because Phillips wasn't merely being disciplined for a college prank — he was charged with assault.

Kate McEwen, in a civil suit that included other allegations of violence by Phillips — including choking and threatening to shoot her gang-style in the kneecaps — said in the 1995 incident he beat and kicked her, pulled her down three flights of stairs by the hair and slammed her head into a wall. Phillips pleaded no contest to misdemeanor trespassing and assault.

Osborne had a lot to say after Phillips' arrest, including his recommendation to the player that he get treatment to control his anger. Incredibly, the coach also said this: "It's not as though Lawrence is an angry young man all the time and a threat to society. I don't believe that. But there are occasions every four to five months when he becomes a little explosive."

To this day, I'm still trying to figure out what Osborne meant. Last week he told the Lincoln (Neb.) Star Journal that he spoke recently with Phillips and "he sounded like things were getting better." Sure, Tom.

Osborne, a 68-year-old grandfather, is either incredibly naive or deviously disingenuous, maybe a bit of both. To be fair, coaches cannot save every troubled athlete. It's not easy being part-teacher, part-parent, part-friend to testosterone-charged young men. The coach clearly had a moral dilemma with Phillips, a young man scarred by his youth. Or maybe he didn't.

Some guys, like former 'Huskers star Irving Fryar, eventually get it. Some never do. Hence, we have the legend of Osborne and the legacy of Phillips.

They didn't pay Osborne to hold Phillips' hands. They paid him to win. And so he did. With Phillips, Osborne finally conquered the big one — twice. Eight years after his last game, the congressman still looks like a big winner to many constituents. No contest.

And society still has Lawrence Phillips on its hands.
 
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http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2351191
Ex-NFL RB Phillips to stand trial on assault charges

<!-- end pagetitle --> <!-- begin bylinebox --> <!-- end bylinebox --><!-- begin text11 div --><!-- begin leftcol --><!-- template inline --> LOS ANGELES -- Ex-NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was ordered to stand trial on assault charges for allegedly driving a car into three teenagers who argued with him following a pickup football game.

After a two-day preliminary hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Samuel Mayerson ruled Wednesday that there was enough evidence to hold Phillips on seven counts of assault to commit great bodily injury.

The judge dismissed two counts of child abuse and one count of leaving the scene of an accident stemming from the Aug. 21, 2005, incident on a South Los Angeles soccer field.

Mayerson said Phillips, 30, drove directly at the victims, who suffered cuts and scrapes. Phillips allegedly was angry at the way he had played and took it out on the boys.

"His conduct displayed a certain stupidity and what he did was clearly an assault on these young boys," Mayerson said. "The salient part of the evidence was that the defendant was in a snit when he left the field."
Phillips, who has a felony conviction for making criminal threats, faces more than 13 years in prison if convicted of all counts, said Deborah Brazil, a deputy district attorney.

He was being held on $350,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraignment March 15.

Phillips has a history of high-profile trouble with the law going back a decade to his time as one of the nation's top college football players at Nebraska.

The Los Angeles Rams released him for insubordination in 1997 after he played 25 games with them. Phillips signed with the Miami Dolphins later in the 1997 season, but was released after pleading no contest to hitting a woman in a nightclub.

He was the top offensive player in NFL Europe in 1999 after setting league records for rushing and touchdowns with the Barcelona Dragons.

He signed with the San Francisco 49ers later that year, but was released for missing a practice. He also has played in the Canadian Football League.
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istockphoto_637056_loser_gesture_2.jpg
 
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Not to make any excuses for the pathetic waste of talent that Philips is, but just as a sidenote, scuttlebut from Huskerland is that the reason Philips went caveman on his girlfriend at Nebraska was that he came over to her apartment and discovered her in bed w/ Scott Frost, the backup QB. The next year, after Philips was gone some of his homies on the OL apparently let Frost get clobbered in games occasionally as "payback" for messing w/ Lawrence's woman.
 
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stxbuck said:
Not to make any excuses for the pathetic waste of talent that Philips is, but just as a sidenote, scuttlebut from Huskerland is that the reason Philips went caveman on his girlfriend at Nebraska was that he came over to her apartment and discovered her in bed w/ Scott Frost, the backup QB. The next year, after Philips was gone some of his homies on the OL apparently let Frost get clobbered in games occasionally as "payback" for messing w/ Lawrence's woman.
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That was just an excuse for why they couldn't pass block. :slappy:
 
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ABJ

Ex-Husker Phillips convicted of assault

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Former NFL and Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips was convicted Tuesday of seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon for driving a car at a group of young men, injuring three.
The 31-year-old Phillips drove onto a field near Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after losing a pickup football game on Aug. 21, 2005. He struck two boys, ages 14 and 15, and a 19-year-old man, and narrowly missed four others between 15 and 24 years old, according to the prosecutor.
The three who were struck sustained "severe bumps and bruises and cuts," Deputy District Attorney Todd Hicks said.
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated about an hour before finding Phillips guilty, Hicks said.
Phillips faces up to 20 years in state prison. A sentencing date is expected to be set Oct. 19.
The prosecutor told jurors that Phillips became agitated when his team fell behind in the pickup game. He left the field, accused the boys of stealing from him and drove onto the field at a high rate of speed, Hicks said.
Defense attorney Leslie Ringold argued that her client's actions were neither willful nor intentional, and said there was "woefully insufficient evidence of assault."
She said the car Phillips was driving first hit the front wheel of a bike and fishtailed.
Phillips was arrested that day and has remained jailed since.
He has a history of trouble with the law, going back a decade to his time as one of the nation's top college football players.
The St. Louis Rams released him for insubordination in 1997 after he played 25 games with them. Phillips signed with the Miami Dolphins later in the 1997 season, but was released after pleading no contest to hitting a woman in a nightclub.
Phillips was the top offensive player in NFL Europe in 1999 after setting league records for rushing and touchdowns with the Barcelona Dragons.
He signed with the San Francisco 49ers later that year, but was released for missing a practice. He also has played in the Canadian Football League.
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Link

Phillips' future may be confined
Former football star facing prison
By Dan Abendschein Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/04/2007 01:05:24 AM PDT


Lawrence Phillips didn't want to say he was angry. Speaking to the jury during his 2006 trial, Phillips explained how the theft of his last $97 during a pick-up football game made him feel.
"No, not really angry, I'd say I was upset," Phillips said in response to the questioning of the prosecutor, according to court documents.
He had been a star running back at Baldwin Park High School and the University of Nebraska. His short-lived NFL career started with great promise when he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams with the sixth overall pick in the 1996 draft.
Now facing a jury, he was trying to explain how he ended up running a stolen car into several young men after a barefoot, shirtless game of tackle football at a park next to the Coliseum, USC's football stadium.
He told the jury that he drove a car up to the young men on the field to "get their attention," and that he only ran into them after swerving to get out of the way of a bicycle that one of them pushed at the car.
But the jury sided with the prosecutor's story that Phillips had sped around the field trying to drive over everyone he played against in the football game.


Cont...
 
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