Running from Himself: The Lawrence Phillips Tragedy

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week in the last of our season-wide profiles through the lens of criminal justice we discuss the life and times and crimes of Lawrence Phillips. Phillips’ story is not one for the faint of heart, but one that incapsulates everything this Collective attempts to capture from a sporting, moral, judicial and human perspective. Phillips is best remembered as a prodigious yet highly-troubled collegiate running back at the University of Nebraska and a controversial early first round pick of the then-St. Louis Rams, but the narrative of this man goes far deeper. Join us for a chronological narrative of a simultaneous football phenom and serial criminal. From an adolescence marked by abuse and neglect at the hands of parents and the foster-care system both, to being allegedly “saved” by the so-called constructs of football and almost endless opportunities at salvation granted by coaching greats the likes of Osbourne, Vermeil and others, and to when said chances run dry and incarceration for violent crimes becomes inevitable, the Collective does their best to cover every angle of Phillips’ life. Lawrence Phillips as victim of a broken foster care system, a compromised collegiate and pro football infrastructure and a victim of racial criminal justice inequity: yes. But with serious consideration given to the undue justice given his many victims, namely one Kate EcEwen, and for others whom seem grossly neglected and almost forgotten, we also attempt to bring light to, this week on the Bill Bradley Collective.