Laveranues Coles

Laveranues Coles is a football player in the NFL.  He has spend most of his career with the New York Jets, playing there four different times.  Coles was born in Jackson Florida in 1977 and played college football at Florida State.  However, some kind of scandal occurred while he was at the school and he was dismissed from the team.  He usually doesn't refer to himself as being a former member of Florida State when introduced on Monday Night Football.  He instead cites his high school.

The scandal involved him and teammate Peter Warrick in 1999.  The two when to a Dillard's store in Tallahassee and bought over $400 worth of merchandise, but were only charged $21.40.  A discount this large is counted as shoplifting according to Florida law.  After an off-duty police officer saw what happened on a security camera, the two players and the clerk (a friend of the two) were arrested under a charge of grand theft.  Coles later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor petty thaft and was kicked off of the Florida State football team.  Florida Gators fans brought Dillard's bags with them to the rivalry game between the two schools as a way of making fun of the situation.  Coles has been in other trouble as well, but nothing too serious.  Next he would head to the NFL.

Laveranues Coles was drafted in 2000 by the New York Jets with the 78th overall pick.  After three seasons with the Jets and a great one in 2002, Coles signed with the Washington Redskins because they offered him more money.  That season he made his first and only Pro Bowl.  After the 2004 season ended, Coles was traded back to the Jets for Santana Moss.  Coles did not like the lack of deep passing in Washington that came with the conservative offense of coach Joe Gibbs.

While with the Jets a second time, Coles revealed that he has been abused sexually between the ages of 10 and 13 by a man that his mother had married.  After this was revealed, his mother divorced the man and he is now in prison serving a sentence for another crime he committed.  He has been in jail since 2003 after serving a third of a previous sentence.

Coles had a weak 2005 season, but followed it up with a much better year in 2006.  The fact that quarterback Chad Pennington was actually healthy (a rarity) played a big part in that.  Coles even caught the last touchdown in the last game on Monday Night Football for ABC before it moved to ESPN.  Coles was later released by the Jets in February of 2009.

Laveranues Coles signed with the Cincinnati Bengals for the 2009 season.  T.J. Houshmandzadeh had left the Bengals in free agency and the Bengals needed to replace him with another quick receiver.  Coles was put in the spot alongside Chad Ochocinco, but he did not have a very productive year.  It seemed that Coles forgot how to catch the football whenever it was thrown to him.  Coles played one season for the Bengals before being released by the team.  That year he only had 43 catches for 514 yards and 5 touchdowns.  The Bengals did manage to finish with a 10-6 record and win the division, but this was mostly due to the defense and the running game.  The passing games was awful and so was Coles.  He later complained that he did not get the ball thrown his way enough by quarterback Carson Palmer, but it seemed that he dropped a lot of the passes that were thrown his way, so I don't really know what he is complaining about.

In July 2010, Coles signed again with the Jets for a third time.  However, the team waived Coles a month later.  When Jets receiver Braylon Edwards got picked up for DWI, there was talk that Coles would be brought in as a substitute.  Coles was signed by the Jets yet again on December 4, 2010, but then they released him just four days later on December 8th.  Not sure why they would sign a guy for four days and then release him again, but that's the NFL and the New York Jets.

Laveranues Coles is currently a free agent and it looks like his career may be over if no team decides to sign him or he just plans to retire.  If his career is over, and it probably is, he had a very solid one.  In 10 seasons in the NFL, he had 674 total catches, 8,609 yards and 49 touchdowns.  The most games he ever missed in a season was four and he played in all 16 regular season games in 8 of his 10 seasons, making him very reliable.  He was a Pro Bowl selection in 2003 and also won the Curtis Martin MVP Award in 2006 and the Ed Block Courage Award in 2007.

It is possible that Laveranues Coles has something left at age 33, but only time will tell if he really wants to play again and if the lockout will be over soon enough for him to get signed with a team.  There would likely be some team out there in need of a veteran receiver that they can get cheap.  33 is not too old to get it done in the NFL.  His best days are definitely behind him, but Laveranues Coles could probably make a strong comeback if he so desires.  That would require him to have that hunger and passion to get into great shape and be ready to contribute to a team's passing game.  Hey, the Jets have signed him four times already in his career.  You never know when they might pick him up for a fifth time.  There's no telling who will get injured and need to be replaced, even if it's only for a brief amount of time.  Maybe we will see Laveranues Coles in an NFL uniform this season, if there is a season.