Les MacDonald

Here is the first review of the Red Zone.

 

The Red Zone

BySteel86 on January 27, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition -  Veried Purchase

 "I am an avid sports fan, especially football, so I was very interested to read these stories. Sports fans tend to place many players on a high pedestal with hero status, leading some of these players to believe they are untouchable, and in some of these cases they managed to escape justice or receive rather lenient sentences. Thank goodness there are so many more athletes who do great charity work in their communities. Now a huge fan of Les MacDonald, thanks for another interesting and well-written read."

 

 

Here is the chapter list, introduction and a chapter.

 

 

 

Part One: Murder, Attempted Murder and Manslaughter

 

1,) OJ Simpson

2.) Rae Carruth

3.) Tommy Kane

4.) Jovan Belcher

5.) Jim Dunaway

6.) Robert Rozier

7.) Eric Naposki

8.) Dwayne Goodrich

9.) Aaron Hernandez

10.) Darryl Henley

11.) Leonard Little

12.) Ray Lewis

13.) Josh Brent

14.) Donte Stallworth

 

Part Two: Sex Crimes (Domestic abuse, child abuse, rape, sexual assault…

15.) David Meggett

16.) Ray Rice

17.) Adrian Peterson

18.) Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson

19.) Rafael Septien

 

Part Three: Dog Fighting

20.) Michael Vick

 

 

                                               Introduction

 

 

  It was about two years ago that I started playing around with the idea of a book about the NFL. I have been an avid football fan for many years and, in the last few, I have been shocked at the number of crimes committed by players. Research showed that there have been almost 800 NFL players (active and retired) that have been arrested since the year 2000. Many of those crimes have been of a violent nature. The idea to write about some of these crimes stuck with me but there was always something coming up to delay it. Then, in 2014, there were a few high profile domestic abuse cases that shone a bright spotlight on the NFL and the league’s policies regarding domestic abuse. In The Red Zone we take a look at 20 of the worst cases.

 

 

 

                               Here is the chapter on Dwayne Goodrich

 

 

 

Dallas, Texas 2003: Dwayne Goodrich played his college football at the University of Tennessee for the Volunteers. While there, Dwayne was an All-American as a defensive back. The highlight of his career occurred in the 1999 Fiesta Bowl vs. Florida State. That year, the Fiesta Bowl was the national championship game for the ’98 season. The big play of the game was a 54 yard interception return for a touchdown by Goodrich. It gave the Vols a 14-0 lead that they would never give up enroute to a 23-16 win and the national championship. You couldn’t write a better script for the defensive back to cap off his college career.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                     Goodrich’s pick six against Florida State

 

 

 

  Dwayne was taken by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2nd round (49th overall) of

the 2000 NFL Draft. Injuries stalled his NFL career. As a rookie, he suffered a

hamstring injury that kept him out until November. Dwayne’s hopes for a rebound season in 2001 were dashed in training camp by a torn Achilles tendon. In 2002,

he was used mostly in a reserve role. In his three NFL seasons, Dwayne had only started one game. It turned out that his interception in the Fiesta Bowl would be

his last.

 

  We move ahead to January 13, 2003. It was now the off-season. Dwayne still had

one year left on his first NFL contract that paid him $1.6 million over four years. He still had lots of potential and had high hopes for turning his career around if he

could stay healthy. Monday, January 13 changed all of that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                               

                                          Dwayne Goodrich

 

 

 

  On January 13, Dwayne spent the afternoon playing video games with teammate Bashir Yamini The old friends then had dinner at Olive Garden where they made the decision to continue their night at the Lodge – a gentlemen’s club on Northwest Highway. The last stop that night was at the Silver City Cabaret at the intersection

of Interstate 35 and Mockingbird Lane. A perfect storm of events was about to

lead to tragedy when Goodrich and Yamini left the club at 2am. Up ahead on I-35, Frederick Person,27, was driving his 2002 Mitsubishi Galant. Person was driving

with a suspended licence and no insurance. There was open beer in the vehicle. The Galant clipped the rear of an 18 wheeler. The impact sent the Mitsubishi across the highway into a concrete median. After hitting the median, it flew through the air

and finally landed in the far left lane. Person was knocked unconscious as the Mitsubishi burst into flames. Two cars with three good Samaritans pulled over to

help. Demont Matthews ,23, and Joseph Wood ,21, were in one car. Joshua Josef ,41,

was in another. The three men had been driving down I-35 and seen the accident

just ahead of them.

 

  The time was now 2:05am. Dwayne Goodrich and Bashir Yamini had left the

Silver City Cabaret and were driving down I-35 in separate vehicles. Timing is everything. Yamini later said: “If I would have ran that yellow, who knows? It

could just as easily been me as Dwayne.”  Matthew and Wood were looking for something sharp to cut Person’s seatbelt with. Goodrich was coming toward

them at approximately 85 miles an hour. Goodrich: “Next thing I know there’s a

car on fire and nowhere for me to go. So I go to the left between the car and

the wall. I was concentrating to make sure that the left side of the car didn’t

scrape the wall. I didn’t see what I had hit. Deep down I probably knew but

my mind wouldn’t let me believe that I’d just run over a person. I panicked. After

that, it’s really fuzzy…like my subconscious has blocked it out.” In a 2008

interview, Goodrich said: “You see a car on fire like that and the last thing you’d

think is that people would be standing around it. I was focused on avoiding a

wreck myself. I never saw them.”

 

   Dwayne’s car hit the three men who had stopped to render aid. The impact sent Demont Matthews 155 feet through the air. He was declared dead at the scene.

Joseph Wood was rushed to Parkland Hospital in Dallas where he died three hours later. Joshua Josef’s leg was crushed but he survived. Goodrich fled the scene.

Seconds later, Yamini came upon the scene. “It was total chaos. Cars were on fire. People were running all over the highway. I saw two bodies on the road and the

first thing I thought of was, ‘where is D?’  Dwayne was kneeling in his driveway

when Bashir pulled up. When he saw Dwayne’s BMW, he knew. “You hear these eerie stories about people going into shock. Dwayne was shaking like he was in a

freezer or something. He was mumbling, almost speaking in tongues.” Bashir drove Dwayne back to the scene but it was already almost cleared up. He then drove

Dwayne back home. Dwayne then made three calls to his mother, his lawyer and

the Dallas Cowboys. As he was about to leave to turn himself in, Dwayne was met

by the police at his front door. They had located Dwayne from the serial number

found on his mirror that had fallen off at the scene.

 

  Dwayne was arrested and charged with two counts of manslaughter and three

counts of failure to stop to render aid. The forgotten man in all of this, Frederick Person, was treated for minor injuries and released. Despite the efforts of the Dallas police and private investigators hired by Dwayne’s lawyers, Person was never heard from again. One of the questions that begged to be answered was whether or not Dwayne was intoxicated. He claimed that he’d had four drinks in five hours.

Prosecutor Fred Burns: “We knew he had been drinking throughout the whole

evening. But to prove that he was drunk beyond a reasonable doubt with bar

receipts is almost impossible.” Dwayne took the stand and told the jury: “I just panicked and I got scared. I’ve never, ever in my life been in that kind of situation

and didn’t know how to handle anything.” Fred Burns wasn’t buying it. “You

panicked because you saw the faces of the men who bounced over your windshield…the men you killed.” The jury deliberated for six hours before finding Dwayne guilty. He was sentenced to 12 ½ years.

 

  Dwayne remained free on bail during two years of appeals. Prior to the trial he

had served 11 months. He began serving the remainder of his sentence in September 2006. He was released in 2011. Since then he has gone back to the University of Tennessee and graduated. He has become a motivational speaker who has a

powerful cautionary tale to tell. Goodrich: “The careless decision I made to take

these young men’s lives – I can’t take that back. They were out there trying to help others. I can try to do the same thing with the rest of my life to make a positive difference. I don’t want to be known only as the Cowboy’s player that killed

somebody. I want my story to have a different ending.” Goodrich has two very

good reasons to turn his life around…his 11 year old daughter Jillian and his 8

year old son Dylan. Goodrich: “I realize that they’re going to have people say to

them ‘your Dad is the one who killed those two men’ and that is something I

have to live with. But I also want them to be able to say, ‘yes he is but guess

what my Dad has done since.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                              

 

                          © Copyright 2015 by Les MacDonald