Henry Ruggs opened up publicly on Tuesday for the primary time since he was thrown behind bars for killing a girl and her canine in a horrific 2021 automotive crash … and he admitted he would nonetheless “like to” play soccer once more as soon as he is out of custody.

The previous NFL star received candid with questioners for roughly an hour at a Hope for Prisoners occasion in Las Vegas … in an effort to encourage present and former inmates throughout their journeys to efficiently in the future reenter society.

Ruggs touched on a bunch of matters within the chat — together with what led as much as the November 2021 accident that modified his and so many different lives endlessly.

Ruggs instructed the gang, in line with the Las Vegas Assessment-Journal, he had turned to ingesting to attempt to “escape” the entire pressures that got here with being a well-known 20-something-year-old Raiders participant with a multi-million greenback contract.

He went on to apologize to Tina Tintor‘s household for the way in which his actions led to her dying … including he “would love for them to fulfill the actual Henry Ruggs and never the one which was escaping from one thing.”

Ruggs gave the impression to be in nice form — and when he was requested about his soccer future, he made it clear he needs one other shot on the NFL.

“I am on this newfound religious house,” he mentioned, “and I am assured in who I’m and what I can do, so, when the time comes, I am certain I will be prepared.”

He added that he would even be open to enjoying for the Raiders once more.

“I do not really feel like I ended on the phrases which are significant to me and my core values,” he mentioned. “I’d like to play once more, and what higher place to do it than the place I began? To not point out, I used to be the first-ever choose in Las Vegas.”