Former NFL running back Derrick Ward has been arrested on felony charges stemming from allegedly committing multiple robberies across the Los Angeles area, according to TMZ Sports. Ward is accused of robbing several businesses, including gas stations, using "force and fear".
Ward was arrested Monday and booked at approximately 6:30 p.m., with his bail set at $250,000. His arrest comes several years after previous post-career issues, as he was accused of scamming multiple friends out of money in 2017.
Ward was a seventh-round Draft pick by the New York Jets in 2004, but he became most well-known for his tenure as a member of the New York Giants. Ward was a member of the Giants' Super Bowl XLII-winning team in 2007, and he would break out in 2008 as part of the "Earth, Wind, and Fire" Giants running back trio alongside Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw.
Ward's finest performance would come in the 2008 season in a game against the Carolina Panthers where he ran for 215 yards, clinching the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the Giants with a 34-28 victory. Ward would finish the season with a career-high 1,025 rushing yards, making him and Jacobs the fifth pair of teammates in league history to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season. Ward would then play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans before retiring in 2012.
Ward finished his NFL career with a total of 2,628 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, while also adding 96 receptions for 787 yards and three touchdowns in the passing game. Ward's most notable payday came with the Buccaneers, who gave him a four-year, $17 million free-agent contract in 2009.
