For her friends and family, especially, one might suppose, for her parents, the horror of Tina Tintor's death is unfathomable, unimaginable. Truly the stuff of nightmares. Twenty-three years old. If she'd died instantly, it would have been terrible enough. That she was burnt alive. Oh my God. A complete and utter tragedy.
But this news would have stayed in Vegas were it not for the fact that drunk-driving twenty-two-year-old Henry Ruggs III, the man at the wheel the speeding Corvette when it plowed into and killed Tina Tintor, was a professional athlete. Ruggs was a star wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders, working on the second year of a $16.7M four-year contract. (Since the accident, the Raiders have parted company with Ruggs. His contract was a guaranteed one - not always the case in pro football - but the team will likely be able to void it.)
One can imagine that, thanks to his athletic prowess and the hard work that he put into his game, thanks to his lucrative contract and the potential for follow-on riches, Henry Ruggs III figured he was set for life. That he had the world by the balls.
All that money at such a young age. A $1.1M home he shared with his girlfriend and their three-year-old child. A Corvette. The ability to help out family (and, no doubt, some hangers-on "friends"). Fans no doubt worshipping at his altar. Healthy, talented, good-looking.
But in one respect at least, a complete and utter moron who is responsible for the death of an innocent young woman who had the misfortune to find herself in the speeding path of Henry Ruggs III. And who is equally reponsible for the ruin of his very own, and very young life.
Ruggs faces a raft of charges. In addition to felony charges of reckless driving and a DUI that resulted in a death, he may also be charged a second DUI count of injuring another person, his girlfriend, who was in the car with him. There may be an additional charge for the loaded gun on the floor, which might have been okay, if Ruggs hadn't been drunk and speeding. (Ruggs alcohol level was 0.16% - twice the legal limit - when he was tested after the crash.)
When a Nevada DUI results in a death, and you're convicted, there's no non-prison option. Ruggs will spend at minimum two-years behind bars. Likely more. He could be on the hook for up to as many as 46 years.
Whether he's in for two-years (which seems impossibly light, given the circumstances of insane speed and high alcohol level, even though that level is below the point at which an enhanced penalty kicks in in Nevada) or 46 years, the dazzling football career, the dazzling riches, are more than likely gone for good. So, I'm guessing, is the $1.1M house, which will no doubt belong to Tina Tintor's parents.
Not that Henry Ruggs can't rebuild a life for himself, and put this terrible incident behind him. It's just not likely to be the life he dreamed of, and had every reason to believe he had in hand. (By the way, the NFL has a deal with the rideshare services to drive athletes under the influence home. Maybe Ruggs didn't know about it, or was two drunk or arrogant to act on it.)
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like an awful lot of young athletes end up being guilty of bad behavior - often involving assaults on women, at other times drugs and alcohol. A number that seems out of proportion. Maybe it's just that, because they're athletes, we hear about them more than we do the regular guy who works in a Wendy's or a bank. Or maybe because they're coddled, or because their coaches/parents/teachers look beyond bad behavior and see only the athlete who's brilliant at being an athlete. Character and academics be damned - or at least placed in a corner of the backseat and told to sit down and shut up.
The football players among these young athletes vie to get recruited by a football factory, which gives them a chance (albeit an outside one) to end up in the NFL. Which gives them a chance (albeit an outside one) of being a star who makes a ton of money in the course of his career.
Most high school stars don't become college stars. Most end up playing supporting roles. They're there to help win games and make the super stars look good. The super stars get drafted, as do the stars who may not be quite so super, but who are still pretty good. And then most of them are chewed up and spit out by the NFL grind. Their contracts aren't guaranteed. They play a few years. They suffer a career ending injury. They're just not good enough. And there they are, with what's most likely a half-assed education, little money saved, and no plan or prospects.
Henry Ruggs III was one of the ones who looked like he was going to make it. And then, somehow, he threw it all away.
Maybe he was a good (enough) kid who just made a terrible mistake. Maybe he was an arrogant jerk. Maybe he was something in between. (There are report that, in the hospital where he was taken after the crash, he was belligerent to the police and to medical staff, but that might have been the booze talking.)
The bottom line is, of coure, that he's twenty-two. He's an adult. He's responsible for his own actions.
And yet one can't help believe that the teams who rely on these athletes don't give two-hoots about them, as long as they can perform, show up at an occasional feelgood charitable event, and keep out of the (negative) news.
Henry Ruggs III has taken Tina Tintor's young life. That's the most important takeaway here. But he's also ruined his own young life. And that makes this a double tragedy (although only one is a capital-T Tragedy).
I was on a jury a couple of weeks ago. A DUI case. Nothing of this magnitude. No one got hurt. All that got damaged was an out-of-commission fire hydrant, a bus stop sign, and the driver's car. And they didn't make a compelling enough case to convict that driver, so we had to vote to let her go. (For whatever reason, unmentioned by either side during the trial, no breathalyzer test evidence was presented.)
After the trial - which lasted all of a couple of hours; jury deliberation took about twenty minutes - I googled the driver's name to see if she had any priors, and I couldn't find any. That made me feel better. But I'm sure I'll google again at some point to further reassure myself that we were right to let her off.
Maybe when I'm googling her, I'll look up Henry Ruggs III and see how his story is playing out. Twenty-two is so very young to ruin your life. Hopefully, there's enough in him - the strength and determination it took to make it to the NFL - that he can put to use to make something of himself. He's got the opportunity, something that Tina Tintor never got. Hope he makes the most of it.
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