According to court documents obtained by WKRG, JaMarcus Russell allegedly approached Chris Knowles seeking a donation for a football program at his alma mater Williamson High School, where he was volunteering as a coach at the time.
Knowles is said to have written a check to the retiring quarterback in July 2022 which he deposited at Navigator Credit Union (NCU).
However, Navigator Credit Union filed a lawsuit against Russell, claiming that it had lent him approximately $55,000 in exchange for depositing the cheque.
Oddly, a few months later, Russell sued Christopher Knowles and Selwonk Enterprises, his company, as a third-party plaintiff in the same case, demanding $74,000 in addition to punitive damages and interest.
According to Russell, Knowles “halted payment on the check causing him substantial losses” adding that Knowles’ attempt to halt payment included making “false representations,” for which he is liable.
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In a phone call with WKRG, Knowles provided a completely different story – claiming that Russell persuaded him that the Williamson High football team required new weight-room equipment, and that’s why he wrote the check.
Later, when Knowles could find no evidence that the donation had been made, he started to worry.
When Knowles pressured Russell for a receipt or other proof, Russell allegedly failed to deliver it and stopped answering his call.
Meanwhile, Williamson High dismissed Russell from his voluntary assistant football coaching responsibilities. Russell is not allowed to “be around the football team or on school campus,” according to the school, though they have not said why.
Williamson High has not received any of the money intended for the contribution, according to WKRG. The trial is scheduled for this October.
JaMarcus Russell was a Raiders player from 2007 until 2009. He signed a six-year, $61 million contract with the Raiders, of which $32 million was guaranteed.
This was around the time that the NFL and NFLPA jointly negotiated a rookie wage scale in 2011 to restrict rookie contracts; this contract agreement even became known as the “JaMarcus Russell rule.”
