Truth & Rumors > NFL

Little still feels pain of deadly accident

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Even if you don't want to forgive him, Leonard Little wants to say he's sorry, and it has taken him nearly 10 years to get up the nerve to do this publicly. "Please don't do what I did," he told sixth- and seventh-graders at the Loyola Academy of St. Louis. "I killed someone and I constantly think about the hurt I caused that family. I'm not a bad person, but I made a bad decision, and it cost someone her life and ruined her family's lives. You don't want that burden on you." So what we witnessed was another phase in the personal penance the Rams defensive end is paying as retribution for the fateful night of Oct. 19, 1998, when he climbed behind the wheel of his Lincoln Navigator and made two fateful turns out of a hotel parking area, then struck and killed Susan Gutweiler.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Leonard Little , Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images Leonard Little , Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
May 3, 2008  07:38 AM ET

This is awful. And most of us have drinking and driving in our past but we got away with it.

May 3, 2008  07:45 AM ET

the nfl really threw the book at him too. a whole 1/2 year suspension.

May 3, 2008  08:01 AM ET

the nfl really threw the book at him too. a whole 1/2 year suspension.

pw | 05/03/08, 07:45 AM

Imagine if he'd done that during a Goodell administration. He'd be doing more than just talking to middle school kids.

May 3, 2008  08:31 AM ET

He gets an 8 game suspension and pulls 90 days in jail for drunk driving/manslaughter and because this ***hole goes around talking to kids we are supposed to view him as courageous?

May 3, 2008  09:05 AM ET

Has he told Gutweiler's family he's sorry? Has he made some sort of restitution? Has he set up scholarships for her kids? He makes a lot of money... what's he done to make things better for her family?

May 3, 2008  09:19 AM ET

90 days in jail for manslaughter ? It's good to know there isn't a double standard being practiced here every day.

May 3, 2008  09:28 AM ET

I'm no fan of Little. He did an absolutely horrible thing and he was not punished enough. But man, I cannot imagine what it must be like to carry that burden around for the rest of your life. I'm sure that it in no way is worse than what the family of the victim deals with on a daily basis. However, if he has any form of conscience this has to gnaw away at him every day.

May 3, 2008  09:43 AM ET

Waste of life that is what he is. He has two DUI's. He got one after this all happened. Think about that he got another DUI after he already killed a person while driving drunk. Most of us would have been in jail for a long time for this. Then for him to get another one and still be a free man. I root everyone for him to get his neck broken and be a vegetable the rest of his worthless life.


This shows what a classless organization the Rams are for keeping this thing on the field. I guess having talent does let you get away with pretty much everything.

May 3, 2008  09:45 AM ET

Another thing. Oh let me feel sorry for him it took him 10 years to work up the courage to speak about this to the media. Give me a break. This guy deserves a long pain death!

May 3, 2008  09:53 AM ET

Don't sugar-coat it for us DIEHARD, you can tell us how you really feel.

May 3, 2008  09:56 AM ET

Seriously though, if this guy DID get another DUI after this...there is NO room for forgiveness.

May 3, 2008  10:09 AM ET

Straight from Wikipedia look for yourself

After a drunken birthday in 1998, Little crashed into and killed another motorist, Susan Gutweiler in St. Louis, MO. When tested, his blood alcohol level measured 0.19 percent, a level that exceeds the statutory level of intoxication of 0.08 in the state of Missouri.[5] Little received 90 days in jail, four years probation and 1000 hours of community service.[6]

Six years later, Little was again arrested for drunk driving and speeding.[7] The probable cause statement filed by police said Little had bloodshot and watery eyes, smelled of alcohol and failed three sobriety tests. [8] Because of Little's 1999 guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter in his drunken-driving crash case, prosecutors charged him as a persistent offender. This made it a felony case.[8] Little was acquitted of driving while intoxicated, but was convicted only of the misdemeanor speeding charge


How nice he only go off with a misdemeanor speeding. Must be nice to have money and a **** laywer!

May 3, 2008  10:23 AM ET

Reading what some of you have just posted shows how sick some people are. Did he get a lite sentence yes but when your not a vicious killer emotionally he may just be paying a higher price then Don Goodell could ever make him pay. Maybe some of you are stone cold killers so you look at it differently. I wonder how many of you have been drinking and driving but have been fortunate enough to have nothing happen yet? And when will you all realize that Goodell is just like a Mafia Don and he doesn't care what players do as long as they don't bring bad press on the family.

May 3, 2008  10:24 AM ET

i should take care of him...

May 3, 2008  10:25 AM ET

The speech would have had more meaning had he not gone out and done the same thing all over again.

whatever Little. I dont think you have much remorse at all.

May 3, 2008  10:26 AM ET

@CLEVELAND DIEHARD
\

Are you Anti-Semitic?

May 3, 2008  10:30 AM ET

Bad press, what is worst press then this. I guess they just cleaned it up fast enough and a new big story hit this one was old news. This guy deserves to be in jail for a long time.

Coop don't try to compare what this guy did to anyone. He did what he did and he did not pay for his actions plain and simple. Goodell was not even the Commish when this all took place anyways. Please don't try to justify what he did.

May 3, 2008  10:30 AM ET

At least Littles appears to be trying to influence others to do the right things, unlike some other phony NFL **** who've been a witness to a double murder, weaseled out of any responsibiltiy for it, and now trys to paint himself as holier than thou.

May 3, 2008  10:33 AM ET

Coop what is the meaning of asking me that.

 
May 3, 2008  10:36 AM ET

Cheese, that is Pastor Lewis to you!

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