Plea agreement: Ex-NFL player admits selling crack

[Getty Images, 2001]

DADE CITY -- Former NFL running back Troy Hambrick has agreed to plead guilty to distributing crack cocaine and will help in other federal drug investigations, according to a plea agreement.

Hambrick, 31, helped Pasco High School win a state football championship in 1992. Now he faces up to 10 years in federal prison on a charge of selling at crack in his hometown last year.

He admitted selling 78 grams to a "confidential source" on Sept. 27 at a Dade City gas station in his Lincoln Navigator, according to the plea agreement he signed Feb. 22.

Hambrick also agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in other drug investigations. In exchange, federal prosecutors will let the sentencing judge know about his help. Hambrick also agreed to forfeit his Navigator to the government.

His NFL career ended in 2004 after stints with the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals. Hambrick hoped to play this year with the American Indoor Football Association in North Carolina, but that seems unlikely now. He remains free on $100,000 bail pending sentencing.

- Jamal Thalji, Times staff writer

[Above right photo, Times, 1992]

Comments

[El Lepero]

What do you expect. "Them People" are all the same. They love "Crack Cocaine" and violence. Send him away for a few years. Shame that people like this who should set an example for young Blacks, turn out the wrong way, thus setting a bad example.

[TampaTim]

Just goes to show.. you can take the man out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the man.

[rob]

so i guess just blacks and people in the ghetto sell and by crack

[john]

Rob - Blacks are not the only ones that "by" crack.

[ME]

WHAT ....DID HE SPEND ALL THE MONEY HE MADE PLAYNG FOOTBALL?? GUESS HE GOT USED TO THE HIGH LIFE HE MAY NOT HAVE BEEN PAID TOP DOLLAR BUT WHEN YOU MAKE THE NFL YOU MAKE PRETTY GOOD MONEY. TOO BAD HE DIDN'T BUDGET BETTER AND HAD TO RESORT TO SELLING DRUGS

[Dr_Dug]

Hey john at 2:49. Put down your crack pipe and learn to spell! Blacks are the ones that BUY and sell crack. Check your local jail population and see for yourself. In fact, ask your momma to write you from jail and tell you about it.

Some people are just ignorant. Why does this have to be a racial issue? What happened to just plain stupid? As far as I know stupid comes is assorted colors.

[JOhn]

Gosh the Hambrick's must be so proud. Stupid is as stupid does...

[Rodger]

how do you give a crack dealer a sentencing deal? ex-football players now dirt bags should get what everyone else gets. when are we going to get tough with drug dealers and actually make them want to quit? this man was to close to the children in our community if he helped at a public school.

[Rodger]

To all the black folks that read this, being white im really ashamed of these people that are saying crack is a black thing, its a human addiction thing and drugs see no colors.

He's a pusher, not a user. Big, big, big, difference! You might say, he is at the root of the drug problem. I wonder if he was kick'n his profits to terrorist hives. If not, was he declaring his take on his 1040?

[lolwhitey]

the majority of the crack smokers out there are WHITES.

[VOR]

Rodger 4:42 is right, drug addiction and pushing are not racial issues, but human ones.

[herb]

Hambrick may not be a role model, but should not be prosecuted as a criminal. Total irrational hysteria. Drug use should be decriminalized! I don't happen to use drugs, but consenting adults should be free to use them if they so choose.

[haha]

i guess all you white folks coming to my hood to buy crack is really black folks.

[melacakiki]

OH, LOOK! HE'S BLACK, WHAT A BIG SHOCKER!!

[melacakiki]

WAIT A MINUTE, I SMELL JESSY JACKSON AND AL SHARPTON COMMING. LOOKS LIKE HE WILL BE A FREE MAN.

[MoGo]

Troy is a dealer, not a smoker Herbie. He sold to a DEA snitch. Dealers go to jail. And Rodger, cutting a deal means he just gets less time, in return for dumping on bad assed kingpins. You homies need some learnin.

[Str8BucIn]

These comments show that racism is still alive an well. This is during a time when we potentially have a black man for president. I don't agree with the him dealing crack, but it apparent he needs some help. Black people didn't make crack it was a white drug that spilled into our community, as young black males saw away to make quick money. I've lost pleanty of my childhood friends to crack, be it selling it or using it and that's white and black. Let's remember this use to be called free basing that white people still do. I'm not trying to sling mud, but we have a drug problem that the government started and can't get rid of now. Another former player that got caught doing the wrong thing.

[Remember Bo]

This is just one of the scum bags that is the reason Bo Harrison is not alive today. The Hambricks influence in the Rumors Lounge and the riff raff associated with it are some of the same thugs that murdered Bo Harrison in 2003. This POS Hambrick needs to rot under the Florida State Pen. No deals for this goon or any other POS associated with him. We as citizens are tired of the violence and tired of the drugs running our streets in Pasco County. If he doesn't get at least 15 years in prison then the system is truly broke.

[MoGo]

The government started it??????
They and the whites made the blacks sell it???????
The dude needs help????? Come on holmes.
What are you smokin now you pinko commie liberal drive-by???
He is nothing but a drug dealer, who happens to be black, as are 90% of them.
5 years in the can should be plenty of help for him.

[Not The Marlboro Man]

Whoever the idiot Herb is should move to Amsterdam and live on the streets there awhile and watch the people, who are hooked on dope, rot in their own flesh. As long as live, I will fight tooth and nail to keep the poison of cocaine, marijuana and heroine and all other drugs off the streets. Anyone to even suggest that these drugs should be decriminalized is an idiot and should have their head examined. Hambrick is a drug dealing thug and should be prosecuted and sentenced as such. As for herb, you sir are un-American.