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Former NFL Player Held On Felony Battery Charge

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 18, 2008

Updated: 02/18/2008 05:25 pm

LAND O' LAKES - Onetime NFL linebacker Darren Hambrick is in legal hot water again just weeks after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery charges in a deal that included anger management classes.

This time Hambrick, whose legal name is Darren Dewayne Grant, is accused of hitting and choking a longtime girlfriend, causing bruises and scratches, according to a Pasco County arrest affidavit.

Darren Hambrick

He is being held without bail at the Land O' Lakes jail on a felony battery charge.

Pasco deputies arrested Hambrick, 32, of Lacoochee, Sunday morning at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, but the incident took place at a home near St. Leo, according to the report.

Other details weren't immediately available.

On Jan.14, Hambrick, who now works in the trucking industry after the Tampa Bay Storm declined to pick him up for another arena football season last summer, pleaded guilty to the two misdemeanor charges that stemmed from an altercation at a Trilacoochee nightclub formerly known as Rumors.

He was accused of hitting two men during a disagreement outside the club. Investigators said Hambrick pushed a bouncer into a table and punched the other man.

In the plea agreement the judge withheld a formal finding of guilt and ordered the former football player to six months' probation, 13 weeks in anger management classes and $190 in court costs and any restitution.

The new charge likely will affect the terms of that agreement.

Hambrick was a Pasco High School football star who went on to play five seasons for the Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns, but that career came to an end in 2002.

His brother, Troy, also was in the NFL but now faces legal troubles of his own. In December he was indicted in U.S. District Court in Tampa, accused of selling or distributing crack.

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