Lawrence Phillips was liked by some CFL teammates, but was a troubling signing

There's a case that former CFL and NFL running back Lawrence Phillips never should have played  north of the border (and in today's climate, he probably wouldn't; the league intervened to keep Ray Rice out, and he had much less of a pre-CFL record than Phillips), but he did for two years with Montreal and Calgary, and was an important part of the Alouettes' 2002 Grey Cup-winning team. With Wednesday's news of Phillips' death at age 40 in California's Kern Valley State Prison of a suspected suicide, Sportsnet's Arash Madani (who wrote an extensive 2010 feature on those 2002 Alouettes, which sadly doesn't seem to be online any more) shared some 2010 remembrances of Phillips from his former Montreal teammates:

Here's a surviving section from Madani's 2010 piece on how Phillips was key to pumping the Alouettes up the night before the 2002 Grey Cup:

Phillips was an important on-field piece for Montreal as well, rushing for 1,022 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2002 and earning an East all-star team selection. He only had 40 rushing yards in the Grey Cup, thanks partly to icy conditions, but still helped the Alouettes to a 25-16 win and their first Grey Cup victory since their 1996 return to Montreal. However, the off-field controversies that had plagued him in the U.S. (including assault and vandalism charges in 1994 at Nebraska, 1995 charges for assaulting his ex-girlfriend at Nebraska, 23 days in jail during two years with the St. Louis Rams in 1996 and 1997, assault charges with Miami in 1997 and disciplinary issues with San Francisco in 1999) showed up in Canada, too; he walked out on the Alouettes at least once during 2002, and was released May 1, 2003 for "not meeting the team's behavioural standards," which turned out to be about sexual assault charges. He signed with Calgary, and had 487 rushing yards for them in 2003, but was released after arguing with coach Jim Barker, effectively ending his football career. While he did make some good plays on the field in Canada, bringing him to the CFL looks like a mistake in retrospect.

Things only got worse for Phillips after he left the CFL. He was arrested for felony assault with a deadly weapon in 2005 after driving a car into three teenagers following a pickup football game in L.A., and sentenced to 10 years in jail for that in 2008. 2009 saw him also convicted on seven counts around assaulting his former girlfriend and sentenced to 25 additional years in prison. His letters from jail show he never adapted well to prison and worried about violence from others, and he was accused of murdering his cellmate this past April. Earlier this week, a judge ruled that there was enough evidence to try him on those charges.

The Phillips case is an informative one, as the comments from former teammates Chiu and Belli in particular illustrate that he wasn't always terrible to everyone. That's important to keep in mind with off-field charges; some players can seem great to their teammates and still get into serious trouble off the field. It's not always clearly-disliked people. The anonymous teammate's comments of "you have to be an unstable person to succeed in that sport sometimes" also ring somewhat true; there are plenty of football players who are incredibly kind, compassionate and law-abiding off the field, but there's also a case to be made that football and football culture can sometimes reward and encourage unstable behaviour and aggression, and that's something teams will have to thoroughly consider in player evaluation.

Phillips was an incredible talent and a remarkable player, but sadly, that talent led to too much enabling of him at the NCAA, NFL and CFL levels. Teams kept taking chances on him despite all the warning signs, and they didn't do much to try and help him out or keep him in line. His story's a sad one, but hopefully it can lead to something positive down the road; it's a sign of how talent alone really isn't enough, and how leagues should be very careful of signing those with off-field criminal records. Sometimes, getting a talented player just isn't worth the price.