Reuben Droughns

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**Reuben Droughns**
National Football League debut
Reuben Droughns at the New York Giants Super Bowl rally at Giants Stadium.
New York Giants — No. 22
Running back
Date of birth: August 21, 1978 (1978-08-21) (age 29)
Place of birth: Chicago, Illinois
Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)	Weight: 220 lb (100 kg)
2001 for the Detroit Lions
Career history
College: Oregon
NFL Draft: 2000 / Round: 3 / Pick: 81
Teams: Detroit Lions (2000-2001) Denver Broncos (2002-2004) Cleveland Browns (2005-2006) New York Giants (2007-Present)
Career highlights and awards
Super Bowl champion (XLII)
Selected NFL statistics (through Week 17 of the 2007 NFL season)
Rushing yards	3,602
Rushing average	3.9
Rushing TDs	19
Stats at NFL.com

Reuben Droughns (pronounced /RU-ben DRONES/) (born August 21, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American football running back for the New York Giants of the National Football League.

1 High School years
2 College years
3 NFL career
4 Legal trouble
5 References
6 External links

[edit] High School years

Droughns attended Anaheim High School (Anaheim, California) and was a student and a letterman in football. In football, he rushed for 49 touchdowns and 4,915 yards, which ranks as the fifth most yards gained in Orange County high school football history.

[edit] College years

Droughns played college football at the University of Oregon and was a two-year starter after a stellar two-year career at Merced (Calif.) Junior College, and was a first-team All-Pac-10 choice as a senior. He ranks sixth on Oregon's all-time rushing list with 2,058 yards. Droughns had 1,234 yards and nine touchdowns on 277 carries (4.5) as a senior, including rushing for over 200 yards in three contests. In his first game for Oregon, he ran for 202 yards and two scores against Michigan State. One of his most impressive performances came at UCLA, where he ran for 172 yards and a score despite fracturing his right fibula during the contest, an injury that would force him to miss the rest of the season. Droughns was a history major at Oregon. He was a JUCO All-America at Merced after leading the nation in yards in 1997 with 1,611 and leading the state of California in all-purpose yardage with 1,984. Prep Star Magazine deemed him the nation’s top JUCO running back after that campaign. He was an honorable mention All-American as a freshman.

[edit] NFL career

He was drafted by the Detroit Lions out of the University of Oregon in the third round (81st pick overall) of the 2000 NFL Draft. Droughns spent the season on injured reserve after separating his right shoulder on his first carry in Detroit's opening preseason game vs. New England (8/4). He was placed on injured reserve Aug. 22.

Next year played in nine games and started three for the Lions, rushing for 72 yards on 30 carries (2.4) and catching four passes for 21 yards (5.3) and a touchdown (vs. Tampa Bay, 11/11/01). He was waived by Detroit after Week 1 (9/12) and was signed to Miami's practice squad Sept. 18 before being re-signed by the Lions Oct. 9.

He played for the Denver Broncos for three seasons. Although originally intended to be a fullback, he became one of many 1,000-yard rushers, amassing that in 2004. Despite rushing for 1,240 yards in 2004, Droughns was not guaranteed the starting job for the 2005 season, so he asked for a trade.^[1] He was traded to the Cleveland Browns by the Denver Broncos on March 30, 2005, for defensive linemen Ebenezer Ekuban and Michael Myers. In his debut season with the Browns, he became the first Browns player to gain 1,000 yards rushing in a season since Earnest Byner and Kevin Mack both achieved the feat in 1985.

On March 9, 2007, Droughns was traded to the New York Giants in exchange for WR Tim Carter.^[2] Droughns battled Brandon Jacobs for the starting job but became the back-up running back for the Giants, and helped Jacobs replace the retired Tiki Barber. However, due to his poor performances throughout the year, he has dropped to fourth on the Giants depth chart, behind rookie Ahmad Bradshaw, and was replaced by the latter as kick returner after similar special-teams performances.

[edit] Legal trouble

During the 2005 season on November 1, Droughns was pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence after a breathalyzer showed he was over the legal limit. Nevertheless, he missed no playing time and on May 9, 2006, he was acquitted of all charges.