UFL Flubs, JaMarcus Not With Them

Oakland Raiders fans may have a hard time relating to this, but there is a football team out that really wants JaMarcus Russell on its roster.

The Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL, that nickel-and-dime pro football league that gave you the California Redwoods, shocked the World Wide Web Friday when they listed none other than JaMarcus Russell on their official roster.

But within hours, Russell's name disappeared from the site and the team admitted to KETV Omaha 7 that Russell does not play for the team and never agreed that he would. They simply threw his name up there and crossed their fingers that Russell would go along with it.

The Nighthawks also listed former Raiders Justin Fargas and Jeff Garcia on the roster. The roster read like the 19th round of your Fantasy Draft in 2007.

The Omaha UFL team has been courting Russell for over a month, and JaMarcus has been turning them down.

But his recent felony drug arrest might be changing Russell's appetite for the league. ProFootballTalk.com reported Friday that Russell's agent told the league to "check back in August."

It sounds like Russell is praying for a training camp injury to persuade some NFL team into taking a late summer chance on him.

The Nighthawks' roster has since been scrubbed of players who don't actually play for them, and now only former Green Bay Packer/Houston Texan Ahman Green is listed as playing for the team. Green is pictured as an anonymous silhouette with a lawn jart flying at him.

Russell, meanwhile, is expected to plead not guilty on his felony drug charge in a Mobile, Alabama court Tuesday.

Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who thinks Russell might consider the UFL if the Nighthawks let him wear an all-diamond uniform.

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