JaMarcus Russell Explains Why He Used Purple Drank, Lean During Football Career

JaMarcus Russell is infamous for many reasons.

To this very day he’s one of the biggest busts in NFL history. Now the former QB is opening up about his codeine use in college and the NFL, explaining that he used to deal with injuries rather than taking painkillers. From his short venture with the Oakland Raiders, to being arrested in 2010 for possession of codeine syrup, it was a short lived but very memorable career.

Russell says he first drank lean when he was just 14, when he accidentally grabbed it   from a cooler while hanging out with friends.

“That was my first time drinking syrup,” Russell said in the Players’ Tribune. “Wasn’t the last time.”

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Y’all don’t know a damn thing about JaMarcus Russell.

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JaMarcus added … “Some syrup, for us, that’s like you might drink some wine or something. I’m not glorifying it, but back then, that was the cheapest way for them boys to sip on something. You grow up in poverty, you’re going to figure out a way to cope with it, you feel me?”

“I was in so much pain that one morning I just said f*** it and took some drank with me to class,” Russell said.

“Looked just like a soda from the cafeteria. I don’t know how the hell the teacher even found out, but somebody in class snitched on me.”

Russell says LSU coaches found out about it and suspended him for the 2005 Peach Bowl.

“I ain’t no saint, but come on, man,” he added. “They shoot your ass up with the strongest painkillers on earth just to get you out on the field. But, you’re drinking some cough syrup and now you’re a criminal?”

Russell says his drinking continued in the NFL:

“Was I perfect? As a player? As a person? Hell no,” Russell said. “I shouldn’t have been sippin’ like that, in the NFL. I should’ve stayed in better shape. I should’ve been more of a student of the game. I got to live with my mistakes. I’d do it 10 times differently today, if I was coming up in a different era.”

Russell says he doesn’t view himself as a failure, and has no regrets.

What a legend.

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