Dallas Cowboys player in jail on $500k bail after crash kills team-mate

AN American football player for the Dallas Cowboys is in jail on bail of $500,000 after a drink-driving accident which killed one of his team-mates.

Defensive tackle Josh Brent was charged with intoxication manslaughter after the crash at 2.21am on a Texas state highway. His car flipped and caught fire.

Brent’s team-mate Jerry Brown jnr, a linebacker on the Cowboys’ practice squad, who had been in the passenger seat, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital a short time later.

A jail spokesman said that bail for Brent, 24, had been set at $500,000. He appeared at a hearing on Sunday morning where he was ordered to post the bond or remain in jail in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

The Cowboys were in Ohio last night for their NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Brown, 25, had not played any games for the team. He had played in one NFL game for the Indianapolis Colts this season before joining the Cowboys.

Brent, who suffered minor injuries in the crash, has started five games for the Cowboys and played 12 this season since regular starter Jay Ratliff was injured.

“I am devastated and filled with grief,” Brent said in a statement. “Filled with grief for the loss of my close friend and team-mate, Jerry Brown. I am also grief-stricken for his family, friends and all who were blessed enough to have known him. I will live with this horrific and tragic loss every day for the rest of my life. My prayers are with his family, our team-mates and his friends.”

Intoxication manslaughter, a second degree felony, is punishable in Texas by two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

When police responded to 911 calls, they found the 2007 Mercedes on its roof in the middle of the road and Brent dragging Brown out of the burning car. Police believe, based on gouge marks and other evidence, that Brown was driving faster than the 45 miles an hour limit.

Brent had a drink driving arrest in 2009, when he played for the University of Illinois.

In an interview before the Cowboys game in Cincinnati, team owner Jerry Jones said that the best way for the team to honour Brown’s memory was to play well. “Jerry was so focused and so bright,” Jones said. “Our hearts are certainly with his mother and family.”

The tragedy comes as the NFL is still reeling from the death of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, who shot and killed his girlfriend a week ago before driving to the team’s training facility and killing himself in front of the coach and general manager.