(Image credit Mark J Rebilas/USA Today Sports)
Written by: Nicholas Mullick
A few weeks ago I wrote about the Raiders 2021 Dark season where I went through all the issues the team had to go with through Jon Gruden, Henry Ruggs, Trent Brown’s medical malpractice allegations, the death of John Madden, the whole Nate Hobbs saga, and the awful officiating in there playoff matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. It was a truly Dark season. One part of that article also talked about cornerback Damon Arnette’s Fall From Grace and after the news that came out about him pretty much just ended his career. More on that later though.
But I will give a quick summary of his Raiders tenure. Damon Arnette was drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders in the 2020 NFL Draft 19th overall. At the time many including myself thought it was a reach of a pick due to the off-the-field issues and his inconsistency in college. Arnette did not have a good rookie season at all and 2021 was an important year for him. Well, that did not turn out well as he was in a lawsuit due to a car crash and uploaded a video making death threats to fans plus showcasing his collection of guns. Which is an extremely stupid thing for anybody to do especially a professional athlete. There is nothing funny about making death threats and going to show the gun collection that you have while making those threats. With that plus him being a liability on the field the Raiders had to cut ties with him. So thus he went from being a Top 20 pick in an NFL Draft to out of a job.
Now Damon Arnette did luckily get signed to the Miami Dolphins practice squad and did not do much with him at all. When Miami got eliminated from the playoffs his contract expired and to me it was telling that the Miami Dolphins did not even offer an extension to Arnette once his practice squad contract expired.
Now lucky for Damon Arnette the Kansas City Chiefs needed help as their secondary is a complete mess and decided to sign Arnette to a contract. It was risky but keep in mind the Chiefs are no strangers to getting bust 1st round cornerbacks. They traded a late-round pick to the Minnisota Vikings in exchange for CB Mike Hughes and took a chance on CB DeAndre Baker who had off-the-field issues plus almost went to prison.
So this was his third chance in the league with a Super Bowl contender and did Damon Arnette do right by not committing off-the-field issues. Nope. Not even 8 days after he signed with the Kansas City Chiefs he was once again arrested in Las Vegas and was charged with multiple crimes. He was charged with concealing a deadly weapon without a permit, 2 counts of an assault with a deadly weapon, possession of marijuana or cannabis, and possession of a class one or two-level controlled substance.
Now when I heard this I was disappointed and I really don’t know what to say. But this showed me that the off-the-field issues will never stop and I don't blame the Kansas City Chiefs for cutting ties with him. I hate to say it but Damon Arnette is a lost cause with a long history of off the field issues that have surrounded him for many years.
I think that Damon Arnette is done and he will never play in the NFL again. I won’t say the sport of football yet due to the launch of the USFL and XFL. If he gets his head right and steers clear of the off-the-field issues he could continue to play the game in either of those leagues. But in the NFL I doubt it as He was on his last straw due to how bad he was both on and off the field. This was his last chance to make it in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs. I mean he just blew an opportunity at performing on a Superbowl team. It is quite the deeper fall from grace for CB Damon Arnette. I just hope Damon Arnette gets the help he needs because if this keeps going then it will only get worse. It will also cause more damage to not only himself but to his friends and family members.