Thomas Howard, who walked on at Texas-El Paso and worked himself up to become a second-round draft pick for the Oakland Raiders as a linebacker in 2006, was one of two people who were killed in a freeway car crash on Monday in Oakland, CA. One has only to look at the screenshots here to begin to get the scope of the accident: pretty gruesome stuff. An initial investigation by Oakland police shows that the cars “exploded in a fireball” on impact, and that Howard was traveling at or near 100 mph.
Howard suffered a knee injury last season with the Cincinnati Bengals and never quite played back to form (he had six interceptions, two for touchdowns, with the Raiders in 2007 — the most in the NFL for a linebacker). He was cut by the Atlanta Falcons in Sept. of this season. He was living in Oakland, where he was involved in several charitable enterprises. CSN Bay Area:
Multiple reports say Howard, 30, a second-round pick of the Raiders in the 2006 NFL Draft, was the driver of a speeding BMW 750li that rear-ended a big rig before leaving the highway out of control, launching over a center divider between Fifth and 10th Avenues before slamming into a 2012 Honda CRV at about 12:50 a.m.
The driver of the CRV, a 65-year-old Hayward man, also was killed in the multi-car accident. “The BMW was traveling northbound at a high rate of speed,” CHP Sgt. Robert Cullinan told KTVU on Monday. “It rear-ended a big rig, rolled over several times, bouncing over the center divider and collided head-on with the CRV in the other lane.”
Howard, 30, had two daughters. His father, Thomas Howard Sr., also played linebacker in the NFL, for nine seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Cardinals.