Tag: Henry Ruggs III

Former Raiders WR Henry Ruggs III to plead guilty to 2 counts in fatal crash

Report: Henry Ruggs III to plead guilty to 2 counts in fatal crash

Justice often moves slowly. In the case of Henry Ruggs III, the former Raiders first round pick, it’s been a year and a half since the car crash in which he was allegedly traveling at a rate of 156 miles per hour and plowed into the back of another vehicle resulting in the death of 23-year-old Tina Tintor and her Golden Retriever Max.

Today we approach a conclusion to the case, with Ruggs expected to plead Guilty to DUI Resulting in Death and Misdemeanor Vehicular Manslaughter. This according to a report by ESPN. The official plea will be made May 10 in a Las Vegas courtroom.

The plea agreement carries with it a sentence of three to ten years in the Nevada State Prison.

Initially the case the state brought included two counts of reckless driving along with DUI causing substantial harm which was with regard to the injuries sustained to his girlfriend who was in the car with him. If convicted on all those charges, his sentence carried up to 50 years in prison.

Those charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

Ruggs blood alcohol level at the time of the crash is not known, as he refused to take a field sobriety test. However, when he took one two hours later, it was still twice the legal limit.

2022 NFL draft: Every player taken with 12th overall pick in last 10 years

Will the Vikings land the next NFL star at No. 12?

Everyone has a different opinion on what the Minnesota Vikings will end up doing with the No. 12 overall pick of the 2022 NFL draft.

That in itself is a good thing as far as first-year general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is concerned. It means he did his job to not leave any glaring holes in free agency.

Granted, the team does have obvious needs at defensive back, interior offensive line and edge rusher. But they aren’t so desperate for help in a particular area of need for them to reach at a position.

They’re in the often sought after spot of being able to take the best available player on the board, while also weighing opportunities for draft day trades. With that said, the No. 12 position on the draft board has been a bit of a sweet spot for some teams in recent history.

Here is every player taken with the pick in the last 10 years.

Giants’ Kadarius Toney defends controversial Henry Ruggs tweets

New York Giants WR Kadarius Toney didn’t blink when grilled over his controversial Henry Ruggs III tweets, and refused to back down.

Do not say or post anything on social media that you later have to walk back or regret. That was the message New York Giants head coach Joe Judge gave rookie wide receiver Kadarius Toney following his controversial Henry Ruggs tweets.

Toney, of course, offered a poorly timed take just days after Ruggs was charged with DUI resulting in the horrific death of 23-year-old Tina Tintor and her dog.

But Toney felt strongly enough about the message that he was attempting to send that he didn’t walk it back. There was no apology, but there was a little added clarity without the restriction of a word count on Twitter.

That did not come without a tense exchange with reporters, however.

“Like I said, pray for the families involved,” Toney said when asked about the tweets. “Pray for the families. That was clearly stated in there. I don’t know how everything else came about. Take it how you want it.”

As the questions persisted, Toney became more agitated.

“Like I just said, pray for the families involved. Why are you drilling the same question? I’m not going to answer that. Come one. I don’t got time for this,” Toney barked.

Things changed direction for a moment but eventually circled back to the tweets. Again, Toney was visibly annoyed.

“I mean, there’s going to be attention anyway just because of who I am, I guess, with anything I say,” Toney said. “Really from Joe, it’s more so say what you’ve got to say, and mean what you say. At the end of the day, you shouldn’t have to go back and clarify anything that you say, which I’m not doing here.

“Like I said, pray for the families involved. How could you regret having empathy for both sides? I don’t really get it.”

Judge previously insisted that Toney was coming from a good place and empathizing will all involved, but acknowledged the message may have been skewed a bit on social media.

“I talked to Kadarius. It’s important that we understand how we articulate our words and put them out there,” Judge said. “Ultimately, our prayers are with everybody. This is a situation no one wants to see happen to anybody. No one wants to be in this situation. While no one is in any way, shape or form dismissing the consequences at all, it’s horrible on both sides. It’s absolutely horrible. As some players on the Raiders and Derek Carr have voiced, as well, it’s a terrible incident. You’ve just got to make sure that you still have prayers for everybody involved. The important thing is we articulate our words and we watch what we say at the same time.”

You have to imagine that Judge and Toney will have another talk after the rookie’s Wednesday press conference went off the rails.

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Raiders deny fallout from Henry Ruggs crash contributed to loss to Giants

Despite rough day, Raiders deny fallout from Henry Ruggs crash contributed to loss to Giants

Expecting the Raiders to take the field in New York on Sunday and be the same team they were the previous couple of weeks was optimistic, to say the least.

While this team may be the most able to roll with the sudden tragic crash in which their teammate Henry Ruggs III killed a young woman in a drunk driving accident, it was a lot to expect them to just shake it all off and play their best football.

Derek Carr in particular had a lot to process. He was able to step up following the sudden resignation of head coach Jon Gruden last month. He stepped up quite well, in fact, helping lead the Raiders to two straight wins. But the loss of his number one receiver in such a grim and heart-wrenching fashion was not going to be as easy to recover from.

I said this week that if any QB is best suited to be able to handle it, it’s Carr. He has handled it as best as can be expected. But he isn’t superhuman. It would have been truly miraculous for him and the Raiders offense to perform with maximum efficiency in this situation.

All things considered, the first quarter the Raiders looked like they could win this one. After the defense gave up an opening drive touchdown, they stiffened up, stopping the Giants on their next three drives. Meanwhile the Raiders offense scored a TD and a field goal to take a 10-7 lead.

“It was a lot of emotional weight on me, but I feel like I came into this game ready to play. Different guys may react individually, but I feel like with the practice that we had this week, I feel like guys were focused on the game and came in with a solid mindset.”

The Raiders carried a 13-10 lead into the half. But there were signs things were not right. On the final play before the field goal, Carr missed a wide-open Darren Waller in the end zone which had them settle for the field goal.

There was still a chance for the Raiders to make score back-to-back as they had the ball to open the third quarter. On that drive, Derek Carr threw a pass in the left flat for Hunter Renfrow. The pass was behind Renfrow, which is very dangerous and Xavier McKinney made him pay. McKinney stepped in front of it and returned it 41 yards for the score.

Down 20-16 with just over five minutes left, the Raiders needed a scoring drive. Instead, they got Carr throwing a pass for Zay Jones in double coverage and having McKinney pick Carr off again.

It was the first time this season Carr has thrown multiple interceptions in a game. But he insisted it was simply a mistake on his part that had nothing to do with his mental or emotional state.

“I thought mentally we were ready,” said Carr. “Myself I was ready to go. I was excited just to play football. And I don’t think emotions or anything were into it. The second interception, Zay ran a double move, I tried to fit it in before the safety got there, he got there. It had nothing to do with emotion, that was a decision I made and it didn’t work out.”

The Giants would get a field goal out of it to take a seven-point lead, which meant the Raiders would have 3:21 to drive for a touchdown.

They would get to the 13-yard-line where Carr held onto the ball a bit too long and Kolton Miller was beaten around the edge to give up the strip-sack on Carr. It was the first sack Miller has surrendered all season and the first fumble the Raiders have lost this season. And it ended the game.

Ruggs was the team’s deep threat. He led the team in receiving and averaged nearly 20 yards per catch. In this game, they had just one deep pass for more than 20 yards. Carr had twice as many interceptions than that.

“You can’t turn the ball over. That’s why we lost the game,” said Carr, who had three turnovers in the game. “We come out and we fight at the end and get a touchdown and, you know, we win the game and we’re talking about different stuff. Not certain emotions and all that kind of stuff.”

The Raiders do deserve some credit for nearly pulling it out despite the situation. But no one who watched that game would say they looked like the same team from a couple of weeks ago. And missing a key aspect to their newly high-powered offense was an obvious problem.

But good luck getting anyone to admit that. 

All week the Raiders were touting Zay Jones as the heir apparent to Ruggs. That he was going to fill in admirably. It was clear that was not happening in this game. Jones had four targets that resulted in as many catches for the Giants as for him. But the Raiders were sticking with their assessment of Jones.

“I think Zay is a deep threat and he can take the top off the defense as well,” said Hunter Renfrow. “I feel like we didn’t get too different a coverage than we were expected or anticipating if Henry would have been out there. I think Zay did a great job.”

Jones has had a key catch here and there this season, but he is at best a solid role player who can surprise the defense on occasion. And even if Ruggs isn’t catching a lot of passes, defenses must respect his speed. That isn’t really the case with Jones.

That being said, Ruggs’ absence in the offense wasn’t the only reason the Raiders lost. They had several opportunities to win this one despite the obvious missing dynamic. Six trips to the red zone for the Raiders yielded just 16 points.

Carr dropped back to pass 13 times from the red zone. The first time was a two-yard TD pass to Renfrow. The rest of the way he went four of 11 for ten yards and a fumble. Still, interim head coach Rich Bisaccia didn’t think his quarterback was having an off day.

“I know there are some plays out there he’d love to have back, but I didn’t feel like it was, maybe ‘off’ is the word,” Bisaccia said of Carr. “Certain throws go certain ways. Sometimes they’re a little high or low or a lot of guys make those catches. We just didn’t execute on either end.”

It’s expected that the reason for how things played out can be boiled down to one thing. But, most likely it was a combination of things. Yes, Carr had an off day. Yes, the team had an emotional week. Yes, it affected their preparation. Yes, it probably affected their play a bit as well. Yes, not having the team’s number one receiver and deep threat takes some of the teeth out of the offense. Just another hurdle to overcome. 

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Raiders emotional resilience again being tested and Derek Carr showing he’s built for this

Raiders emotional resilience to be tested once again and Derek Carr may be just the man to lead them

How does one prepare for a tragic event such as this? One in which you suddenly are faced with a teammate and friend who got behind the wheel of a car drunk and took someone’s life while destroying their own?

Granted what the Raiders players are dealing with is nowhere near the difficulties the family of the victim are going through or the family of Henry Ruggs who are watching the 22-year-old former NFL top pick flush his life down the drain. But the impact of his actions and the life he took are felt by all who care for them.

Dealing with such an event is difficult enough in and of itself. For his former teammates, they must grapple with their emotions while also attempting not to lose focus on football and the task at hand. That being the Giants whom they will face in New York on Sunday.

In order to do this, they need solid leadership and honestly it’s hard to imagine anyone in that position responding better to this tragedy than Derek Carr has.

The 8th year quarterback took to the podium this week, just a day after the terrible incident and subsequent release of Ruggs by the Raiders. His eyes were red from crying and while he did well to hold it together in front of the media, he still spoke from the heart. And in so doing, the father of four struck all the right notes.

“I care deeply about people,” said Carr. “And this one hurts because again it really affects some families and it affected some lives, and that hurts me. It hurts my heart because I know that there is pain, I know there is shame, I know that there is anger probably.”

Carr and his Raiders teammates are in a tough spot. An even tougher spot than they were just a few weeks ago when their head coach Jon Gruden was forced to resign after it the leak of several offensive emails he had sent prior to returning to coaching.

While it may be easy for many to see the situation with Gruden in black and white terms, the players had a lot more feelings to reconcile. They are in a similar situation with Ruggs, only this time it’s worse because Ruggs’s actions cost someone their life. But it doesn’t change the emotions his former teammates are grappling with. Carr put those emotions is the proper perspective.

“I saw Henry’s locker today and for whatever reason that got me,” Carr admitted to breaking down knowing Ruggs will no longer be there. “Not because he’s fast, not because of what he can do for me, but because of the person that he is and because I love him. I mean he literally texted me at midnight of a golf swing, me and Hunter (Renfrow), ‘How’s my swing look? You guys need to help me.’ Just seeing that and then getting the news when we woke up. How am I supposed to handle that? How am I supposed to react?”

Carr added that Ruggs “needs people to love him right now. He’s probably feeling a certain type of way about himself right now and he needs to be loved. If nobody else will do it, I’ll do it.”

That may or may not be a popular sentiment for those who would like Carr to speak only on the woman who perished. And while that might sound like the right thing to say, it would not be real. These players have mixed emotions that include feelings of their former teammate.

Simply saying all the right words doesn’t help anyone. In times like this you don’t hide behind prepared statements or platitudes and cliches, you lead by example and let your teammates know that it’s ok to feel how they feel. You lean into it. You pull your teammates in closer, you hold your family a little tighter.

Too often we make the mistake of thinking these guys can just suppress their emotions to an almost sociopathic degree. But they’re not robots. They can’t just block everything out and focus solely on football.

It isn’t soft to have feelings and to express them. Actually it’s the other way around. It’s much stronger to let your feelings out and not care what people think about it. Because expressing those emotions is healthy. Just ask Darren Waller and Solomon Thomas about this. They’ve long preached transparency and mental and emotional health.

In order for these players to function at a high level, let alone move past it, they must be able to express their emotions. If they hold them in those emotions could creep out at a time they can least afford it. Like during the actual game when they most need to focus.

This Raiders team played their best football in the weeks following Gruden’s resignation. And a good portion of that was the play of Derek Carr and the offense. This shockwave may dwarf the last one, but I’m not sure there’s a QB who is more well equipped to navigate this situation and once again rally this team through such unthinkable adversity.

Former Raiders WR Henry Ruggs traveling 156 MPH, blood alcohol twice legal limit at time of fatal crash

Former Raiders WR Henry Ruggs traveling 156 MPH, blood alcohol twice legal limit at time of fatal crash

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Every detail that emerges regarding the crash involving Henry Ruggs III that killed a 23-year-old woman is more and more damning for the former Raiders wide receiver.

Wednesday, while his former Raiders teammates were preparing to take the practice field, Ruggs was sitting in a courtroom hearing the details of the charges against him.

The first details were horrific enough. At 3:39 am Tuesday morning, Ruggs was allegedly speeding down city streets in his Corvette with his girlfriend in the passenger side and plowed into the back of a Toyota Rav4. The Rav4 then caught fire, killing a 23-year-old woman and her dog who was also in the car.

Ruggs was booked on charges of Driving Under the Influence resulting in substantial bodily harm and Reckless Driving resulting in death. These charges carry sentencing from 2-20 years in prison. And the details as presented by the judge Wednesday are quite damning for Ruggs.

First off, the speed at which he was traveling. Which was registered at 156 miles per hour. This is on a city street, mind you.

Then his blood alcohol level. Which was .161 — more than twice the legal limit.

And to make matters worse, he was illegally in possession of a firearm. And it was loaded.

Ruggs appeared in court with a neck brace and a wound on the bridge of his nose by his left eye. Rather shocking considering the speed at which he was said to be traveling at the time of the collision. The 22-year-old’s bond was set at $150K.

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New York Giants vs. Las Vegas Raiders: 6 things to know

The New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders square off on Sunday afternoon in Week 9, so here are six things fans should know.

The New York Giants (2-6) host the AFC West-leading Las Vegas Raiders (5-2) at MetLife Stadium this Sunday afternoon.

Below are six things to know about Week 8.

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Las Vegas Raiders release WR Henry Ruggs III

The Las Vegas Raiders released Henry Ruggs III hours after the WR was charged in a fatal auto accident

Henry Ruggs III was involved in a Las Vegas automobile accident early Tuesday morning that resulted in a fatality. Hours later, the Las Vegas Raiders announced they have released the 22-year-old wide receiver.

Ruggs was been booked in absentia on 2 felony charges: DUI w/ serious bodily harm and Reckless Driving w/ death or serious bodily harm.

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar wrote on Tuesday:

Per the Nevada State Legislature, the penalty for DUI causing substantial bodily harm or death (NRS 484C.430) is a minimum of two and a maximum of 20 years in prison with no probation or suspended sentence, a mandatory fine of $2,000-$5,000, and a three-year license suspension.

NRS 484C.430 states that this is the “penalty if death or substantial bodily harm results; exception; segregation of offender; plea bargaining restricted; suspension of sentence and probation prohibited; affirmative defense; exception; aggravating factor.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Ruggs had been released from the hospital and was at the county jail.

Police said Ruggs and his girlfriend, who share a young daughter, were treated for “serious” injuries at University Medical Center before Ruggs was transferred to the county jail in downtown Las Vegas. According to Metro records, Ruggs arrived at the jail shortly after 2:10 p.m. and remained in custody as of Tuesday evening.

Ruggs was the 12th overall pick in 2020 by the Raiders out of Alabama.

He is due in court for his first appearance Thursday.

Breaking: Raiders release WR Henry Ruggs III following DUI arrest in fatal car crash

Breaking: Raiders release WR Henry Ruggs III following DUI arrest in fatal car crash

Things have moved pretty quickly. At 2:39 this morning Henry Ruggs III was involved in a fiery crash in which his vehicle allegedly rear-ended another vehicle that resulted in a woman being killed. The details came out as the day went on including Ruggs being arrested on charges of felony DUI and reckless driving resulting in a death.

By midday the Raiders had put out a statement. And as of moments ago, the team has officially released Ruggs.

This tragedy has caused a 23-year-old woman to lose her life. And from the outset it appears Ruggs will have a lot more to worry about then his football career at this juncture.

Ruggs was the team’s top pick (12 overall) in the 2020 NFL Draft out of Alabama. After a rough rookie season, he was off to a promising start to the 2021 season. Now his career could be over and he faces charges that carry jail time between 2-20 years if convicted.

The Raiders decided they would not drag their heels and instead cut ties and move forward without Ruggs.