Yahoo Sports: Detroit draft bust Charles Rogers owes Lions $6.1 million

[21MadFan]

What a downward spiral

With two weeks and a day until the 2010 NFL draft, it's a very good time for every team to be reminded just how badly a first-round bust can set a team back. If you can add yet another reason to cap on the utterly preposterous career of former Detroit Lions "general manager" Matt Millen, all the better. With the recent news that a district court has ruled that ex-Detroit receiver Charles Rogers(notes) must repay $6.1 million of the $9.1 million signing bonus he received after the Lions took him with the second pick in the 2003 draft, we are yet again brought into the world of measurables with nothing behind them.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Detroit-draft-bust-Charles-Rogers-owes-Lions-6-?urn=nfl,232705

[Hiro]

Taking a look at the 2003 draft and how many great players Detroit bypassed to take this clown, I think I'd cry if I were a Lions fan.

#3 - Andre Johnson, WR (Took the WRONG WR ..)

#8 - Jordon Gross, LT (If they took Gross, they could have had the luxary of Suh or McCoy this year ..)

#9 - Kevin Williams, DT (Ouch, divisional rival in Minnesota)

#10 - Terrell Suggs, DE/OLB (Think they'd want him for that defense?)

#11 - Marcus Trufant, CB (Same as Suggs)

#16 - Troy Polamalu, SS (Same as Suggs and Trufant)

#31 - Nnamdi Asomugha, CB (Yeowch.)

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

I've always wondered about Rogers. If he hadn't had a ***** collerbone could he have been a player in the league? I don't think I've ever watched a Michigan State game in my life so I don't know. Anyone?

[Siven]

I've always wondered about Rogers. If he hadn't had a ***** collerbone could he have been a player in the league? I don't think I've ever watched a Michigan State game in my life so I don't know. Anyone?

I play soccer, and I broke my collarbone and its definitely just an injury that really weakens you and even playing soccer which isn't nearly the contact sport that football is, it took a while to just feel fully fit and fully confident that if i fell weirdly i wasn't going to rebreak it

Charles Rogers was doing well for himself... I just think the issue was he broke it, lost his confidence, broke it again, lost every final shred of confidence he had. For me, i broke it freshman year of college and it took me until probably the end of junior year to feel confident about it not rebreaking (and i still have issues with working out - i can't bench properly anymore because during the break i tore muscle in my shoulder as well)

I think a lot of things worked against Charles Roger - 1. he was a rookie and probably had a pretty crappy work ethic, 2. he wasn't really at a franchise that had a proven management or coaching, 3. he wasn't somewhere where he had top support I think.

So he broke his collarbone and then never had a chance to develop any sort of work ethic to come back from these injures and I think it's work ethic that makes good players great players.

granted some guys get by on pure natural ability I think the general rule is you need to be devoted and to have a strong work ethic to make it in the NFL.