Darren Lewis, who starred at running back at Texas A&M and later played three seasons in the NFL for the Bears, has died of cancer at 55 years old.
Lewis rushed for 5,012 yards and 45 touchdowns at Texas A&M from 1987-90, breaking Eric Dickerson’s Southwest Conference total rushing yards record, which had stood at 4,450 yards.
According to ESPN, when Lewis finished with the Aggies, only four college running backs had more yards — Tony Dorsett, Charles White, Herschel Walker and Archie Griffin.
Lewis was selected by the Bears in the sixth round of the 1991 NFL Draft.
He played for the team for three seasons, the most notable coming in 1992, when he started five games, carrying the ball 90 times for 382 yards and four touchdowns, with an additional 18 catches for 175 yards.
Lewis left football after the 1993 season, following a domestic battery arrest, and fell into a life of addiction and crime.
In 2014, Lewis pled guilty in a string of armed robberies in the Dallas area and was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.
In one of the robberies, Lewis shot a 7/11 clerk in the thigh; he later told the Dallas Morning News that it was by accident.
As he was dying in prison, Lewis granted a recent interview to the Bryan-College Station Eagle, via questions submitted to his wife, Tammie Thibodeaux.
“I was selfish; I just wanted what Darren Lewis wanted and didn’t think about the people I may be hurting,” Lewis told the outlet. “It was all about what I wanted at that time.”
He said he found reform in prison through religion and the support of his family.
“Prison changed me in many ways,” Lewis said. “Prison actually saved my life. Prison changed the way I looked at things. Prison changed the way I approach things. Prison gave me the opportunity to sit down and study God’s word so that God could minister to me with his word.”
Lewis added, “My wife Tammie, who has always been there for me no matter how low I was sinking, never left me. I also relied on my family.”
Lewis was suffering from Stage IV metastatic squamous cell carcinoma, a rare form of skin cancer that can spread to other parts of the body.
“When I was in prison I learned how to totally depend on God,” Lewis told the Eagle. “I allowed him to comfort me through his word. I would have been so lost and depressed if I had not gave my life over to Christ.”