Former Crimson Tide star, Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman, Isaiah Buggs has been convicted on two counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. Tuscaloosa County District Judge Joanne Jannik sentenced Buggs on July 19 to a year of hard labor, ordering him to serve 60 days. The rest would be suspended for two years "pending the behavior of the defendant."
Buggs, 27, also is not allowed to have or be around firearms or own dogs or cats.
The Chiefs released the former Alabama player on June 24, eight days after his second recent arrest in Alabama. He was arrested on a charge of domestic violence/burglary and released on a $5,000 bond, according to records from the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office.
The run-stuffing tackle out of Alabama played three seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers before spending the past two with the Detroit Lions. He has started 23 games and appeared in 56 in his career, with 89 tackles and two sacks. He had signed a $1,292,500 contract with Kansas City for the upcoming season.
APR previously reported how Buggs isn’t the only former member of the Crimson Tide to recently face criminal charges.
The Associated Press reported last year how former Alabama player Henry Ruggs was sentenced to at least three years in a Nevada prison for killing a woman in a fiery crash while driving his sports car drunk at speeds up to 156 miles per hour on a Las Vegas city street nearly two years prior. He was playing for the Raiders at the time.
“I sincerely apologize,” the former first-round NFL draft pick said as he stood for sentencing in Las Vegas after pleading guilty to felony DUI causing death and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, a charge carrying a six-month jail sentence that will be folded in with his three-to-10-year prison term.
Ruggs was cut by the Raiders while he was still hospitalized following the predawn crash on Nov. 2, 2021. The collision killed Tina Tintor and her dog Max and injured Ruggs’ passenger, Kiara Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, his fiancee and mother of their daughter.
“I have no excuses,” Ruggs said, citing pain the case has caused his family, teammates and Tintor’s family. Ruggs said that after prison, he intends to counsel others “about the dangers of driving at unsafe speed and driving and drinking.”
