http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/s ... id=1839187
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
If defensive tackle Darrell Russell is to reclaim a once-promising career largely squandered away to off-field excesses, the former first-round draft choice will have to do so with a franchise other than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Russell
In a somewhat surprising move, the Bucs on Tuesday released Russell, who had signed a one-year, $535,000 contract with Tampa Bay as an unrestricted free agent on March 30. It remains to be seen now if another team takes a chance on Russell, who played in eight games for the Washington Redskins in 2003, after missing the previous 1½ years while he served two NFL-mandated suspensions.
Even after the Redskins afforded him an opportunity, he was suspended by Washington officials for the final game of the season, having been late for a team meeting. It was thought by many in the NFL that the Bucs represented Russell's last best chance to salvage his career because of the presence in Tampa Bay of coach Jon Gruden, general manager Bruce Allen and defensive line coach Rod Marinelli.
Allen was the senior administrator for Oakland when the Raiders tabbed Russell as the second overall player taken in the 1997 draft. Gruden was his former head coach with the Raiders and Marinelli his onetime college line coach at Southern California.
Marinelli had traveled to California in March, on the evening that the free agency period began, to personally recruit Russell. Even before the start of the signing period, there had been rumors Russell would sign with Tampa Bay, figuring the Bucs offered him the most opportune chance to return to his prior Pro Bowl form. When his suspension was lifted last year, Tampa Bay was among the teams that pursued Russell before he agreed to the one-year contract with the Redskins.
In the Tuesday news release announcing the release of Russell, the Bucs did not offer an explanation for cutting him just two weeks before the start of camp. But it is believed the Bucs did not feel Russell, 28, could contribute in their defensive tackle rotation. Even with the departure of Warren Sapp in free agency, the Bucs appear to have good depth at defensive tackle.
Russell tested positive for the designer drug Ecstasy in 2001, and he began that season serving a four-game suspension. The sanction was subsequently increased to an indefinite suspension. While under suspension, Russell was charged with drugging a woman with GHB, the so-called "date rape drug," and of videotaping two friends allegedly raping her.
All 25 counts in that case were dropped in September 2002 for lack of evidence.
Before his suspension, Russell was regarded as one of the NFL's most athletic defensive lineman, a player with potential to dominate. Three years later his future is now uncertain.
In another roster move, the Bucs waived offensive tackle Chris Ziemann, who had been allocated this spring to the Rhein Fire, but suffered an injury in Europe.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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