A tragic end for Rashaan Salaam, Heisman Trophy winner and former college football star
In the early '90s, Rashaan Salaam was a college football superstar, combining grace and power to rumble for yard after yard after yard for the Colorado Buffaloes.
On Monday night, Salaam was found dead at 42 years old in a park in Boulder, Colorado, less than two miles from the stadium where he became a legend.
Salaam's body was found at Eben G. Fine Park. Police told the Associated Press that foul play is not suspected in the former running back's death. But Salaam's mother, Khalada, told USA Today that police suspect her son committed suicide.
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“They said they found a note and would share that with us when we get there,” she said.
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Just over 20 years ago, Salaam became a star in Boulder. He rushed for 2,055 yards and scored 24 touchdowns during his junior season in 1994, winning the Heisman Trophy that season. He then skipped his senior year to enter the 1995 NFL Draft, where he was picked in the first round by the Chicago Bears.
But Salaam's pro career never matched his college stardom.
By 1999, he was out of the NFL. That same year, he told ESPN that addiction to marijuana contributed to his fizzled pro career. In 2011, he sold his Heisman ring.
"I had no discipline," Salaam told the Chicago Tribune in 2012. "I had all the talent in the world. You know, great body, great genes. But I had no work ethic and I had no discipline. The better you get, the harder you have to work. The better I got, the lazier I got."
More recently, Salaam appeared to have found peace in his post-football life. He moved back to the Boulder area and began working with kids.
"Coming back here and living here the past two years, what I realized is that my whole career I've been too hard on myself," he told the Boulder Daily Camera in 2014. "I did some great things. I made history. I would love to go back and change some things, but I can't. I'm hoping to use my story to go and influence kids."
Two years after that interview, Salaam was found dead. Salaam's mother told USA Today that the family hopes to bury him in Boulder, where he rumbled to the 1994 Heisman Trophy.
"He liked it there and was successful there, and he liked the people there," Salaam's mother told the paper.
Meanwhile, the 2016 Heisman Trophy will be awarded Dec. 12.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.
