OTL: Lion Flub
19.08.09
Rogers was exactly. He did get there. But he didn't stay there.
To understand why Charles Rogers' name is synonymous with epic NFL failure, you have to go back to the greatest day of Rogers' being: April 26, 2003. That's the day the Detroit Lions drafted Rogers with the No. 2 choice, behind only top pick Carson Palmer. That's the day his human being changed.
Rogers was at Madison Square Garden with all the other top draft picks, surrounded by more than 50 people who had been bussed into New York from his hometown of Saginaw, Mich. Could there be a outdo scenario? Rogers would be playing professional football in the state where he grew up, where he starred in heinous school and college. "I thought by me coming to Detroit I could get fans what they were missing, a winning program, a sweet team," Rogers says.
Somehow the red flags were ignored: the two positive tests for marijuana prematurely on at Michigan State, and a test at the NFL combine that indicated excess water, which the league considers a doable masking agent, in Rogers' system. What the Lions saw in Rogers was an explosive offensive weapon that would nicely quota quarterback Joey Harrington, the Lions' No. 3 pick in 2002. They gave Rogers a six-year, $55 million compress, including a $14 million signing bonus.
Source: ESPN