Considered by most to be one of the biggest draft busts of all-time and recently released by the Oakland Raiders, JaMarcus Russell was arrested at his home Monday for possession of codeine syrup.  The free agent quarterback now faces felony charges, but since he’s never been convicted of a felony before he would likely get probation or drug court, according to Mobile County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lori Myles.  Much like the recent arrest of Bengals running back Cedric Benson in Texas, this seems like police unfairly targeting a high-profile black athlete.

Asked why police searched Russell’s home in the first place, Myles told an Alabama Fox Station

It was an undercover narcotic investigation on various drugs, marijuana any type of illegal drug. His name came up several times and his home location and so it’s our duty as law enforcement to go investigate that.

Don’t the police have anything better to do in Alabama than to check who’s got an illegal stash of prescription cough syrup?

“We understand that typically sometime this codeine syrup is mixed with a beverage, like Sprite, and they call it sip-sip,” said Myles.  Who’s “they?” Black people? Black athletes?

The same Fox station had this shocking quote from Virginia Guy, Executive Director of the Drug Education Council:

What they call purple drank, when they mix the codeine syrup with a substance like 7up or Sprite. Codeine syrup is a very powerful narcotic … in the same class of drug as heroin and oxycontin, those types of drugs. It’s a painkiller. It’s been widely used in the south and I understand it’s been popular among professional athletes.

So that was why Russell went 7-18 with the Raiders — he was a heroin addict? The Jets were rumored to be interested in signing Russell –who’s certainly more talented than New York’s backup Kellen Clemens and probably has more potential than starter Mark Sanchez too.  But the NY Daily News is reporting the Jets have been scared off by this bogus drug charge.  Still, I have no doubt that Russell will eventually find a second chance in the NFL and will make the most of it when he does.