Derrell Robertson (September 22, 1967 – December 5, 1994) was an American college football player from Tyler,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

who played for

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...

in 1988 and 1989. After college, Robertson signed with the

Las Vegas Posse The Las Vegas Posse were a Canadian Football League (CFL) team, that played at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, in the league's 1994 CFL season, 1994 season as part of the Canadian Football League in the United States ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

in 1994. Robertson was killed in a

car crash A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. T ...

in December 1994 but was still drafted by the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded on September 19, 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup cham ...

in a

dispersal draft A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when an existing team folds or is merged into another team. Like most other sports drafts, most dispersal drafts are conducted in closed leagues and are in ...

after the Posse folded.

Career

After playing at Mississippi State, Robertson was signed by the Posse on April 7, 1994. However, he was killed in a car crash on December 5, 1994, about a month after the season ended. After the end of the 1994 Canadian Football League season, the Posse folded, and its players were made available to the other CFL teams through a dispersal draft in April 1995. A list of potential draftees, including Robertson, was distributed by the league to the teams. With their fourth round pick, the Ottawa Rough Riders selected Robertson. Rough Riders football operations head Garney Henley had previously consulted with the former Posse coach,

Ron Meyer Ronald Shaw Meyer (February 17, 1941 – December 5, 2017) was an American college and professional football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) from 1973 to 1975 and Southern Methodist Unive ...

and had also spoken with offensive coordinator Ron Smeltzer. Both of them spoke well of Robertson, and were apparently unaware of his death, as they did not mention it. (pay for article) According to Ottawa coach Jim Gilstrap, the league and the team did not know about Robertson's death, until they tried and failed to find him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Derrell 1967 births 1994 deaths Players of American football from Tyler, Texas American football defensive ends Canadian football defensive backs Mississippi State Bulldogs football players Las Vegas Posse players Road incident deaths in Texas Players of Canadian football from Texas