Derrell Robertson (September 22, 1967 – December 5, 1994) was an American college football player from

Tyler, Texas Tyler is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the largest city and county seat of Smith County, Texas, Smith County. It is also the largest city in Northeast Texas. With a 2020 census population of 105,995, Tyler was the List of cities in Texa ...

who played for Mississippi State University in 1988 and 1989. After college, Robertson signed with the

Las Vegas Posse The Las Vegas Posse were a Canadian Football League (CFL) team, that played at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, in the league's 1994 season as part of the CFL's short-lived American expansion. Lasting only one seaso ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

in 1994. Robertson was killed in a car crash in December 1994 but was still drafted by the Ottawa Rough Riders in a

dispersal draft A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when their current team ceases to exist or is merged with another team. Like most other sports drafts, most dispersal drafts are conducted in North America. ...

after the Posse folded.

Career

After playing at Mississippi State, Robertson was signed by the Posse on April 7, 1994. However, he was killed in a car crash on December 5, 1994, about a month after the season ended. After the end of the 1994 Canadian Football League season, the Posse folded, and its players were made available to the other CFL teams through a dispersal draft in April 1995. A list of potential draftees, including Robertson, was distributed by the league to the teams. With their fourth round pick, the Ottawa Rough Riders selected Robertson. Rough Riders football operations head Garney Henley had previously consulted with the former Posse coach,

Ron Meyer Ronald Shaw Meyer (February 17, 1941 – December 5, 2017) was an American college and professional football coach. He is best known for having been the head coach of Southern Methodist University, the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts ...

and had also spoken with offensive coordinator Ron Smeltzer. Both of them spoke well of Robertson, and were apparently unaware of his death, as they did not mention it. (pay for article) According to Ottawa coach Jim Gilstrap, the league and the team did not know about Robertson's death, until they tried and failed to find him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Derrell 1967 births 1994 deaths Sportspeople from Tyler, Texas Players of American football from Texas American football defensive ends Canadian football defensive backs Mississippi State Bulldogs football players Las Vegas Posse players Road incident deaths in Texas