Former NFL bust JaMarcus Russell sued over check meant as donation

JaMarcus Russell is best remembered as one of the biggest NFL Draft busts in league history. Now, he’s being used by his former high school over a donation meant for his alma mater’s football team. 

Russell is being sued by Navigator Credit Union for nearly $55,000, plus interest, attorney’s fees, and other costs. 

The lawsuit, filed in Mobile County, Alabama, is over a claim he cashed a $74,000 check meant as a donation to Williamson High School with the intention of buying new weight training equipment. 

According to the lawsuit field last March, the money was lent the money to Russell at the former Oakland Raiders’ request.  

WKRG reports the football program never saw any of the money donated for it. 

The near-$55,000 was the amount given to Russell by the credit union by ‘mistake’ on the day he cashed the check, per WKRG. 

A man by the name of Chris Knowles wrote the $74,000 check to Russell from his business, Selwonk Enterprises.

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Knowles allegedly stopped payment on the hefty check when Russell would not provide proof of the donation and stopped returning his phone calls, per WKRG. 

Russell was a volunteer assistant football coach at Williamson from 2018 until last fall, when he was removed from the coaching staff for ‘personnel reasons’. 

Several months after the original lawsuit was filed, Russell filed a counterclaim against Knowles for stopping payments on the check. 

Russell admitted to cashing the check, but not to any ‘wrongdoing’, per WKRG. 

The case against Russell is reportedly set to go to trial in October. 

Russell is a Heisman Trophy winner and was the No 1 overall pick to the Raiders in 2007. 

After three abysmal seasons with the team, he was released and never played in the NFL again.