Derek Carr Describing the Midnight Text He Got From Henry Ruggs Hours Before His Fatal Drunk Driving Crash is Positively Chilling
Clem said it perfectly when the news that Henry Ruggs ended an innocent life and ruined several others, including his own, by doing 156 m.p.h. at double the legal limit at 4 a.m.: Don't drive drunk. Not anywhere. Especially not on city streets in your land rocket with your foot pressed to the floorboard. Not in a city where you could walk from one end of the Strip to the other on the hoods of cabs and rideshares without your feet ever touching the pavement. And for the love of all that is sacred, not when you get paid millions by an organization that provides you with unlimited 24-hour ride service at no expense.
A young woman was cut down in the prime of her life in a horrifying fashion because a freakishly athletic millionaire didn't want to make a call and wait for a ride. And as if that hard fact doesn't drive the point home strongly enough, listen to Derek Carr explain the last message he got from Ruggs before he went to bed and woke up to find what had happened while he was asleep:
After explaining how emotional this has been, Carr described walking through the Raiders locker room:
"I saw Henry's locker today, and for whatever reason that got me. Because, you know, like, he's not going to be there. Not because fast. Not because of what he can do for me. Because of the person he is and because I love him.
"And he literally texted me at midnight a golf swing, hit me and Hunter [Renfrow], ‘How’s my swing look? You guys need to help me’ And just seeing that and then getting the news when we woke up, I just … I don’t even know how I’m supposed to handle that.”
This video has come out since. It was taken by Ruggs' girfriend:
It's hard to think of anything that could possibly emphasize the point better than this. A guy doing about the most common, everyday activity you can think of. Date night in Vegas. Working on your golf swing. Texting your buddies looking for coaching points. A guy who is loved by his quarterback, making his girlfriend laugh. Blissfully unaware that in a few hours he's going to have blood on his hands.
This should hit home for all of us. On a personal note, it certainly does for me because Saturday I'll be doing Top Golf at Fenway Park with my old Barstool friends Uncle Buck and Soog. The plan is to take pitching wedge swings from a setup in the upper right field grandstands, post some videos, then grab some beers after. Everyone of us with weekend plans remotely similar to that need to really keep in mind Ruggs and the life he took, go easy on the booze, get home safe and then drink to your heart's content. In my days in the court system, I sat through literally hundreds of DUI trials. And I'm grateful that not one of them came anywhere close to a fact pattern this horrifying. Here's hoping lessons get learned so that some good - late though it is for the victim - comes out of this.