Former NFL player arrested for bringing sword to youth basketball game
So this is a hell of a story: a former NFL player who left threatening voicemails for a youth football player was arrested Monday for wielding a sword at a New Jersey youth basketball event.
Charlie Rogers, a former running back who played five seasons with Seattle, Buffalo and Miami, was arrested by the Aberdeen, N.J. police for bringing the sword to, and making terroristic threats at, an October basketball event for parents of a travel basketball team. Rogers turned himself in on Monday, and was also charged with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, stalking and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Swordplay and threatening voicemails
Rogers, who both played and coached at Matawan (N.J.) Regional High School and coached at St. John Vianney High School, had caused further problems for himself earlier this year. Over the summer, Rogers left a profanity-filled voicemail for the father of an 11-year-old football player on another team. In the voicemail, Rogers, then a coach with Matawan American Youth Football, threatened to “blitz every (expletive) play until your guy comes out of the game.”
USA Today’s New Jersey affiliate broke the news of the voicemail in September, and Rogers was immediately fired from his job at St. John Vianney and suspended from volunteering, coaching or associating with American Youth Football anywhere in New Jersey. (The game went on as scheduled, and without incident.)
After turning himself in, Rogers was taken to Monmouth County jail but released. The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office now has the option to to bring charges against Rogers before a grand jury.
____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
More from Yahoo Sports:
• 49ers cheerleader takes a knee for 2nd time
• Nets star suffers gruesome right leg injury
• Durant, Green squabble as Warriors lose in OT
• NFL Power Rankings: Chiefs sitting pretty, for now
