CLEARWATER, Fla. The greatest linebacker who never was picked up the phone. He was wearing what appeared to be gray pajamas with orange stripes. There was lettering on the back.
Pinellas County Jail.
He rested his cane next to his artificial knee, leaned forward and looked into the camera.
Learn from me, Keith McCants said. Learn from me!
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The fourth pick in the 1990 NFL Draft is broke. He s fighting a drug addiction that has landed him in jail almost a dozen times.
Football has destroyed his 43-year-old body. Now it s working on his mind.
I have brain damage, McCants said.
He wants to tell the world, so it doesn t happen to the next great linebacker or point guard or aspiring anyone. That s the only redemption for a life gone so wildly wrong.
McCants had pretty much faded into a trivia question, then I read about his latest jail stay last week in the Tampa Tribune. I called the jail and was surprised to find he was still eager to talk.
Anybody coming out of college, they need to hear my story, McCants said. I will give them something to talk about that s real.
Just seeing him would make an impact. The Video Visitation Center is a large room with phones and small TV screens lining the wall. I was directed to Chair No. 4.
A few feet to my left, three people had circled close to the screen. They cried as they talked to a young man on screen.
To my right was a weathered lady wearing flip-flops. She kept loudly reassuring a prisoner that he probably wouldn t be extradited for his latest offense.
The nearby parking lot was full of satellite TV trucks. Casey Anthony was in the same jail.
Jury selection was underway for the woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter. That meant I was waiting for the No. 2 celebrity on the jail s roster.
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McCants has been in since last month on an outstanding warrant from his hometown of Mobile, Ala. He failed to show up for a hearing on a controlled-substance charge.
He was in the Tampa Bay area, where his ex-wife and three children live. McCants has been arrested 11 times since 2002 on various drug-possession charges.
He says he s been clean for eight months, but when police pulled him over last December they found a crack cocaine pipe in his vehicle. When he was stopped in February and asked for identification, police found a small packet of cocaine.
He pleaded guilty to those charges. The judge sentenced him to the 16 days he d already served. Now McCants is waiting to see if he ll be extradited to Mobile, a situation he says is just a misunderstanding.
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