An arrest warrant was issued for former NFL player Andre Rison in his child support case. Rison is accused of violating his probation by failing to keep up with $1,000-monthly payments and using marijuana. He’s finally decided to speak out, saying he’s tired of being labeled a deadbeat dad when that is not the case. He also has an excuse for testing positive for marijuana.
As for the weed use claims, Rison said he has used marijuana candy to deal with post-NFL injuries. “I hurt every day,” he said. “I’ve got arthritis. I’ve got broken bones, bone spurs in my neck. I could drink it away or take pain pills. My choice was marijuana candy. I’m not a pill popper”
As for the child support claims, the retired NFL-er says he’s been a good father to his son Hunter Rison (in photo above). He says he moved Hunter to Michigan to live with him, his wife and their four daughters. He also says he’s helped Hunter with his football career; Hunter is a senior at Ann Arbor Skyline High School and is committed to MSU (where his dad attended) after years of getting coached by his father.
“He lives under my roof. I take care of him. I coach his football team. … We’ve become the best of friends,” Rison, 49, told the Detroit Free Press in an exclusive interview Wednesday, calling his latest legal troubles “a big nasty hurdle.”
“I’m just tired. Here I am, being looked at like a hardcore criminal. … I’m trying to do the right thing. My mistake was made years ago, and I’m still under this microscope,” Rison said. “It’s very frustrating.”
The woman owed the child support, 47-year-old Racquel Blanks, who works in human resources for an aerospace company in Arizona, tells a different story. She claims Rison chose to stay out Hunter’s life for years and didn’t start paying child support until he was indicted on federal criminal charges in 2011 of owing her more than $300,000. Rison pleaded guilty in the case. In 2013, he was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay $1,000 a month to pay off a $323,000 balance.
“There have never been any voluntary payments from him,” Blanks told the Free Press, stressing:
“I did not sue this man. This is something that he allowed to happen. He agreed to pay this restitution of $1,000 a month. He told me he was going to continue to pay that and be right — and he didn’t. He didn’t follow through … He needs to stop going to people and making himself out to be a victim when he’s not.”
Rison says he can’t afford the $1,000 monthly payments (down from the original $2,358 a month), because he has an annual income under $50,000. He says he makes $3,300 a month in NFL disability payments and makes $9,000 a year as an assistant football coach at a high school. The millions from his NFL career have dwindled significantly.
He says he will turn himself in on the arrest warrant.
