DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – Hearing news of a Dallas Cowboys player under arrest for a deadly crash, Dwayne Goodrich flashed back ten years.

“It brought back a lot of memories,” he said.

A former Cowboy himself, Goodrich’s life changed one night in January of 2003.

After a night of drinking, Goodrich struck and killed two Good Samaritans, who’d stopped to help an accident victim along I-35 and Walnut Hill in Dallas.

“It’s a living nightmare. You have to live with that every day for the rest of your life.”

(credit: CBS 11 News)

Goodrich served six years in prison, before being released October of last year.

Once a successful college player, he said, his life changed when he joined the NFL.

“You’re a young celebrity, so you’re getting a lot of attention, being an athlete, being a young successful millionaire athlete.”

He said, an obvious age gap divided players on the team.

“The older guys going home to their wife and kids, to the guys like myself, 22 years old, young… not really understanding the responsibility of being a professional athlete and role model.”

He doesn’t blame the league, though, for what he considers his bad choices.

Drinking and driving, he said, isn’t a problem specific to the NFL.

“I think it’s a problem with society. Of course, when it happens to an NFL player, it gets magnified.”

Feeling he had disappointed himself and everyone who had believed in him, Goodrich said he suffered from severe depression, after the crash.

While media attention focused on the career and the wealth he had lost, he said those were the last things on his mind.

“All you’re gonna be focused on right now is the embarrassment that you caused yourself, the grief,” he said.

Goodrich now works as a public speaker, sharing his story with youth.

He wants to reach out to Josh Brent, the player accused of killing his teammate in a drunken crash, to offer him the guidance he wishes he had had.

“To pray, to pray,” said Goodrich.

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