Former NFL wide receiver Charles Rogers dies aged 38

**pwaldo** · 11-11-2019, 09:53 PM

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-aged-38.html

Former NFL wide receiver Charles Rogers has died at the age of 38.

Details surrounding his death remain scarce but friends and teammates confirmed that he died overnight.

Rogers was the number 2 overall pick in the 2003 NFL draft and was hailed by former coaches as one of the best athletes they had ever seen.

He played for Michigan State in college then was signed by the Detroit Lions but struggled with drug addiction during his career and, after a string of injuries, left the sport in 2005.

In the years since, he admitted smoking marijuana while playing for the Lions and said he was also addicted to Vicodin.

He was once arrested for allegedly abusing a girlfriend, but the charges were later lessened to trespassing.

He was also arrested for once allegedly threatening to kill his mother, claiming she had stolen $100,000 from him.

A father to eight children by four different women, he had recently been working in an auto repair shop in Florida.

Rogers was among the most exciting prospects in NFL history when he was signed by the Lions in 2003.

He was given a $39.5 million contract which included a $14.4million signing bonus.

But within his first two seasons with the team, his career was spiraling.

Two broken collar-bones sent him spinning into pain-killer addiction, he said. In 2017 interview with The Lansing State Journal, he blamed the injuries and addiction for the end of his career, instead of his marijuana use.

'After I got hurt, I got hooked on them damn things. [The Lions] were giving them out like candy.

'Whatever you want, man. Whatever you want. [They] weren’t even questioning as long as you are on the field. They were passing them out like Skittles. I was straight hooked on them things for three or four years,' he said.