Keith McCants: 'I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me'

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Alabama linebacker Keith McCants' downward spiral is a sad story of self-inflicted blows, a tale of drug addiction, depression, wasted potential, wasted money and wasted opportunities.

The former Buccaneers first-round draft pick once had a $7.4 million contract, but he blew it all.

He wasted it on drugs, cars, mansions, fancy clothes and jewelry.

Now, he's completely broke and walks with a cane due to his numerous football injuries, according to the Tampa Tribune, which conducted a revealing jailhouse interview at the Pinellas County Jail with McCants following his latest legal problem.

The 43-year-old former college football star has been arrested 11 times since 2002 on drug possession or drug paraphernalia charges.

He says he has had 29 surgeries, including several on his knee, and six concussions.

"I wish I had never had any money," McCants told the Tribune. "I would've been great without money. It's a sad story, but it's a true story. Money destroyed everything around me and everything I care for, my family, my so-called friends. I just want enough to live on. I never want to be rich again."

McCants is currently in a drug rehabilitation program.

"I'm trying, really I am," McCants said.

"I don't know much about the demons that Keith is fighting," former Buccaneers teammate Ian Beckles said. "It's scary to see all of this. It's easy for people to judge him and say he has done all this stupid stuff, but he has a disease. I just know that deep down, he's not a bad guy. Maybe a very naive guy, but not a bad guy."

Sports handicapper and Mobile resident Danny Sheridan tried to warn McCants about the need to save his money.

However, McCants didn't listen to his advice.

"I told him he had to take his signing bonus, put it away and invest it, not pay any taxes on it, and just live very comfortably off his salary" of $300,000," Sheridan said. "That way, if he got hurt and the money dried up, he'd have something to fall back on. He wouldn't hear of that.

"I said, 'Keith, if you don't listen to me, you're going to have all this new wealth, you're going to be surrounded by an entourage of people who like you just because you have money and, unless you're the next Lawrence Taylor, in a few years, you're going to be broke.' Well, guess what happened?"

McCants is aware he has a lot of issues to solve.

"I have a sex addiction," McCants said. "I didn't really want that to get out, but that's it. What people do for drugs, I do for sex. Drugs just happen to be in it. I've been messing with women who did drugs. Sometimes, I took the rap for them and ended up in jail. I'm not saying what I did was right, but that's what happened. For all this to go away, I know I've got to change everything about me. ..

"I ain't mad at nobody. I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me. Maybe it's good that I can't remember everything. It keeps me from being depressed. I can make money again. What I can't get again is my body, my mind."

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