Former Texas A&M star Darren Lewis has died of cancer at age 55

Darren Lewis, the Texas A&M star who broke Eric Dickerson’s Southwest Conference records before addiction derailed his football career and post-football life, died Thursday night of cancer. He was 55.

Lewis, who was a star at powerhouse Carter High School in Dallas, was among the nation’s top prospects in 1987, often mentioned along with Emmitt Smith. He rushed for 5,012 yards 1987-90 before including bowl stats, breaking Dickerson’s mark (previously held by Earl Campbell) of 4,450 yards. He finished fifth on the NCAA career rushing list behind Tony Dorsett, Charles White, Herschel Walker and Archie Griffin.

A two-time All-American while in College Station, “The Tank,” as he was known due to his punishing running style, is still 1,309 yards ahead of second place on the career rushing list at Texas A&M.

But during the NFL draft process, Lewis said he was exposed to cocaine at parties and by prospect agents and was assured he would test clean. Instead, he was the only player to test positive for cocaine at the combine, and his stock dropped to the sixth round, where he was drafted by the Chicago Bears, who claimed they were unaware of his negative test and sent him to rehab. .

He started just five of his 33 appearances in the NFL for the Bears, rushing for 431 yards in his career. He never failed a drug test, but was arrested on a domestic battery charge and released in 1993.

Lewis’s fall from grace shocked his former coaches Jackie Sherrill and RC Slocum, who had kept in touch with Lewis.

“I think he’s one of those guys who’s going to be some bad influence with his friends,” Slocum said. “He was strong and tough on the football field, but he didn’t have a bone in his body in terms of being difficult to manage. He was always so, so respectful. I know Jackie would say the same.”

After his NFL career ended, Lewis returned to Dallas to try to straighten out his life, but he continued to deal with addiction. He told Texas A&M’s 12th Man magazine that he lost all his money and his home by 1995, then was arrested for shoplifting for the first time in 1998. He was arrested again in 2004, 2005 and 2006, landing in state prison for robbery. charges, and was released in 2010.

In 2014, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison for armed robberies of hotels and convenience stores, in which a 7-Eleven cashier was shot in the leg, which Lewis claimed was an accident.

“I was selfish. I wanted what Darren Lewis wanted and I didn’t think about the people I could hurt,” Lewis told the Bryan-College station Eagle last week. “It was everything I wanted at the time.”

Lewis was imprisoned in Pollock, Louisiana, where he developed a mass on his shoulder that later ruptured and was determined to be metastatic squamous cell carcinoma, which begins as skin cancer and later spreads to organs.

He was transferred to a prison in North Carolina for medical treatment before being released last year as part of a compassionate release program.

Lewis told the Eagle last week that he was grateful for the long sentence as he was in hospice care because it allowed him to turn his life around in prison. Slocum, who shares a birthday with Lewis, said they would call each other on Nov. 7 every year and said he saw Lewis as a changed man in his final years.

“At the end here, he’s probably in as good shape to deal with what he’s facing right now,” Slocum said. “He was a very strong man of faith. I went up and saw him a few weeks ago, and he had his Bible on the table next to him. I’m glad he doesn’t have to suffer anymore. He was fighting. He played football as hard as he did. , played to the end.”

Lewis said he hoped his life would be a lesson to others.

“I encourage young people to use me as an example,” Lewis told the newspaper. “Making the wrong choice can cost you your career, your life, your family and your friends. It doesn’t cost you anything to make the right decision, but make a wrong decision and it can cost you your life.”