Former Cowboy Joseph Randle Gives Dallas One Last Spectacular Flame Out

Throughout his Cowboys career, Joseph Randle toed the line between lovable flake — think Mickey Rivers — and toxic malcontent — think Greg Hardy. When he said DeMarco Murray had "left meat on the bone" following Murray's posting perhaps the best single season by a running back in Cowboys' history, he was showing the type of unfounded confidence that you want to see from your team's new starting running back. Even when he got arrested in October 2014, it was almost cute. Randle was busted for snatching some underwear and a bottle of cologne at Macy's. 


But then the other shoes began to drop. Randle was cited for marijuana possession after a February 2015 dispute with an ex-girlfriend at a hotel in Wichita, Kansas. Delia Jacobs, the ex-girlfriend, told a 911 operator that Randle threatened her with a gun, and others at the scene told police that Randle injured another woman when he broke a car window. Randle largely escaped legal punishment for the incident, but when NFL investigators hinted that he might face league punishment in October, he went AWOL. Randle, who was having a disappointing season despite his increased role, was officially dumped from the Cowboys roster in November, but recent events make it unlikely that he'll ever play another down in the NFL.

Monday morning, Randle was arrested by Irving police after he was found sitting in a car near another ex-girlfriend's house. In a dashcam video obtained by TMZ, Randle tells police that he is at the house to retrieve a car of his that was taken without his permission from his home in Wichita. When police inform him that he's being arrested on a warrant stemming from a speeding ticket he got in a Coppell school zone, he tells them that the arrest is the "end of his career."


Whether or not Randle's fourth arrest in just over a year and a half — he was also picked up for trying to fight a security guard at a Kansas casino in late November — would've kept him from playing in the NFL again is an open question. Randle is undoubtedly talented and can be a strong, explosive runner when he's engaged. He might have caught on again, but not after Jerry Jones told The Dallas Morning News that Randle was also released, in part, for betting on sports. Jones said Randle did not bet on any NFL games, and did not, to Jones' knowledge, unnaturally affect the outcome of any Cowboys games, but betting on sports is a scarlet letter for any professional athlete. Randle, in a text sent to the Morning News' David Moore, denied that he'd bet on sports.