Lawrence Phillips was the featured running back for two Nebraska national championship teams and had the talent to become one of the greatest NFL running backs ever, but it was never to be. Run-ins with the law off the field doomed him from the start, until the somewhat inevitable on Wednesday: Phillips was found dead in prison of a suspected suicide. He was 40 years old.
It happened at the Kern Valley State Prison, California Department of Corrections, where Phillips had just gone on trial for the murder of his cellmate. Phillips was already serving 32 years for trying to run over several people with his car following a pickup football game (7 years) and seven counts of assaulting his ex-girlfriend (25 years).