{"id":838810,"date":"2026-03-28T10:59:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T10:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/838810\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T10:59:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T10:59:55","slug":"former-raider-says-yes-to-playing-with-team-again-after-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/838810\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Raider says yes to playing with team again after prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 27, 2026, 4:03 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Former <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/las-vegas-raiders\/341\" data-autotag=\"ce712068-67db-47b5-b6da-5d6ec8fefe0f\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> wide receiver Henry Ruggs says he wants to return to the NFL and play for the Raiders once his prison sentence is done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ruggs is serving a 10-year prison term for vehicular\u00a0manslaughter after he killed a woman and her dog during a drunk driving incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ruggs is expected to be paroled later this year, after serving just three years of his sentence, and according to reports, he has kept himself in shape and wants to play for the Raiders again once released.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Former first-round wide receiver Henry Ruggs III plans on playing in the NFL after getting out of prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ruggs has been training and is only 27 &amp; would like to play for the Raiders again.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Q: \u201cWould you want to play for the Raiders again\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ruggs. \u201cWhy would I not\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Coming out of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/alabama-crimson-tide\/3478\/\" data-autotag=\"6c1f0d70-9904-45ac-a261-5bcd28d2a449\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Alabama<\/a>, Ruggs was a No. 1 draft pick of the Raiders and showed promise early on in his career, but off-the-field issues clearly derailed a once-promising career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Would the Raiders bring back Ruggs? He does have experience, and he\u2019s only 27 years old. But do you take a chance on a guy who has had a substance abuse problem?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ruggs has earned his degree while in prison and is getting his life together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A lot of people didn\u2019t think that Michael Vick would play in the league again until the Philadelphia Eagles took a chance on him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Maybe the same will happen for Henry Ruggs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 27, 2026, 4:03 p.m. ET Former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs says he wants to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[95878,7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525,99115,99116,96342,95882,98523,113687,95885,95896,95888,95899,96099,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-838810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-las-vegas","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","12":"tag-lasvegas","13":"tag-lasvegasraiders","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-raiders","16":"tag-sstssportsnfltouchdown","17":"tag-sstsntouchdown","18":"tag-tagalabama-crimson-tide-football","19":"tag-tagamerican-football","20":"tag-tagcrime-justice","21":"tag-taghenry-ruggs-iii","22":"tag-taglas-vegas-raiders","23":"tag-tagnational-sports","24":"tag-tagnfl","25":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","26":"tag-tagsec-conference-football","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116306463883375636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}