SEATTLE – Reggie Rogers, the former University of Washington and Detroit Lions defensive lineman who served time in prison in Michigan for killing three teenagers in a drunken car crash, has died. He was 49.
The King County Medical Examiner's Office said Friday that Rogers died Thursday. Medical examiners didn't have an immediate cause of death, saying they are waiting for toxicology reports.
Also a basketball player at Washington, Rogers was drafted in the first round by the Detroit Lions in 1987. After the October 1988 car crash, he was found to have a blood-alcohol level more than two times the legal limit, was convicted of negligent homicide and spent a year in prison. He played only 11 games in his two-year career in Detroit, and played two games for Buffalo in 1991 and two for Tampa Bay in 1992.
Rogers later had a series of drunken-driving convictions.
Rogers' older brother, Don, followed a similar path from college stardom to the NFL to tragedy. Don Rogers died of a heart attack linked to drug use in 1986.
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