Henry Ruggs speaks at prisoner rehabilitation event

On special release, former Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs spoke at a Hope for Prisoners event on Tuesday night.

For the first time since 2021, Ruggs apologized to the family of a woman whose life came to an abrupt end due to the former receiver’s negligence.

“I wish I could turn back the hands of time,” Ruggs said in a video taken by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I would love for them to meet the real Henry Ruggs and not the one that was escaping from something. I sincerely apologize for not only being a part of that situation, but the fact my face is always in the news, it’s always in the newspaper. So they have to constantly be reminded of the situation, be reminded of me.”

On Nov. 2, 2021, Ruggs’s life changed forever in the worst possible way.

In the early morning hours of that fateful day, Ruggs drove his Corvette at speeds up to 156 mph before crashing into a Toyota. The crash and subsequent fire killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor and her dog, Max. Ruggs would plead guilty to felony DUI in May 2023 and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison in August of that same year.

Ruggs is first eligible for parole on Aug. 5, 2026, and his former Raiders and University of Alabama teammate Josh Jacobs has said Ruggs was training in prison to prepare for a potential NFL comeback.

“He’s training. They let him train and things like that, so I’m like, ‘When you come out, man, I don’t know if you will get a chance.’ I’ve been talking to some people for him. They’ve been saying a couple of teams are willing to give him a chance. I’m like, ‘When you get that chance, man, you better not ever — don’t look back, and prove to yourself and prove to everybody that one decision don’t define you and who you are as a man,’” said Jacobs on Ryan Clark’s “The Pivot Podcast” in April.

It is clear that Ruggs has made peace with this dark moment in his life, and he now hopes to get a chance at redemption.