A large medic response yesterday to a home at 27th and Yesler was an effort to revive former University of Washington football All-American and crowd favorite Reggie Rogers.
The response was too late to save the life of Rogers, who died from an apparent drug overdose. He was 49 years old.
A CD News reader describes the scene outside Reggie Rogers’ house yesterday.
The troubled Rogers was a successful football and basketball player at UW and was picked by the Detroit Lions in the first round of the 1987 draft. Rogers played only six games his rookie year, as he struggled with emotional problems and sought help at a counseling center. His second season was cut short after five games when he killed three teenagers in a drunk driving accident. Rogers served time in prison for vehicular homicide and was waived by the Lions. Out of prison, he played briefly with the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers but was out of football by the end of the 1992 season.
Rogers’ troubles continued, and in November 2008 he was driving under the influence and involved in a hit-and-run collision in Tukwila. This marked his sixth drunk driving conviction. Earlier this month, he was arrested in Seattle on domestic violence charges.