The story of JaMarcus Russell in college football and the NFL is one for the ages. The big armed quarterback from Mobile, Alabama threw 52 touchdowns at LSU from 2004-2006 and posted a 28-7 record in those 3 years where Jimbo Fisher was his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Then Russell went on to be only the second black quarterback to be drafted first overall in the NFL Draft, when Al Davis’ Oakland Raiders picked him in 2007.
Russell penned a masterful column for The Players Tribune which published Wednesday, and in it, he specifically called out the difference in how he was treated by Jimbo compared to how the staff in Oakland treated him.
Now, let’s get it straight. I’ve been cussed out before. I got cussed out by Jimbo Fisher at LSU a thousand times, and I’d still run through a wall for that man, because Jimbo really took his time and coached me. I got to really get to know him, as a man. In the NFL, it’s not like that. I never even had this coach’s phone numbers. Outside of the facility, we didn’t speak. There was no relationship.
This is another example of former players’ holding coach Fisher in extremely high regard, and proves why the A&M football program is in great hands.
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