After spending 17 years behind bars for conspiring to kill the mother of his son, former Carolina Panthers player Rae Carruth has spoken out with a public letter of apology.
“If I could change anything, I’d change the whole situation. His mother would still be here and I wouldn’t be where I’m at. So that’s what I’d want to change. I want the incident to never have happened at all. … I let him down as he came into this world and the only way that I can make that right and the only way I can work out my relationship with my son is to be there for him.”
He went on in the interview to say that he believes he should be the one to raise his son and that he could “make a difference,” while also thanking Adams for the “unconditional care, compassion, love and support” that she gave Chancellor.
Carruth said he wanted to make the letter public because his past attempts to contact Saundra Adams haven’t received a reply.
“I feel like if I did it in the open, it would put an end to the lies. If I say publicly, ‘Ms. Adams, I apologize, Ms. Adams, I take responsibility for what happened,’ that she can no longer get on television and do an interview and say Rae has never apologized to me,” Carruth said.
This is the first time Carruth has spoken publicly since 2001 after not taking the stand during the trial and appearing in a brief interview with CNN early in his sentencing.
A source told SN in 2017 not to expect a grand announcement from the FBI if Tillman succeeded.
“They will try to get him to fade to anonymity as much as they can,” said retired U.S. Marshal Kim Widup, a 38-year law enforcement veteran who led the Whitewater investigation. “But I think at some point the FBI will also use it as part of their recruiting policy, as in, ‘Look who we got.’”
Tillman is not the first high-profile athlete to be connected to law enforcement. Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Herschel Walker made well known his interest in taking FBI classes. Basketball Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal is a deputy marshal in Louisiana, a reserve police officer in Florida and a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia. Not totally unrelated, former NFL guard Daryn Colledge enlisted in the Army National Guard in March 2016, and more notably, Pat Tillman left the Arizona Cardinals in June 2002 to enlist in the Army Rangers in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.