Growing up, many of us were told: “Never say never.”

But F-that – JaMarcus Russell will never succeed in the NFL, period.

During the Raiders’ putrid effort in a 16-10 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday, Oakland head coach Tom Cable benched Russell after the quarterback completed just nine of his 24 pass attempts for 67 yards. It was a typical Sunday outing for Russell, filled with accuracy issues, a complete disregard for pocket awareness and zero signs of being prepared.

After the game, Cable refused to commit to Russell as his starting quarterback moving forward and who could blame him? The former first overall pick’s 47.1 completion percentage and 5.5 YPA both rank him 30th in the NFL and he also has a 2:9 touchdown to interception ratio this season. He’s horrible, horrendous – awful.

But numbers aside, Russell will never succeed in this league because he doesn’t care. He misses open receivers and then he stands on the sidelines acting like he’s rotating in and out of a touch football game at a family barbecue. He has zero passion, zero emotion and I wonder if the guy truly even wants to play football or if he just has the occupation because he can throw a ball 70-plus yards.

That said, maybe he does care. Maybe he cares a lot but he knows he’s in a hopeless situation in Oakland and realizes that he’ll never win there. Maybe he’s just biding his time until his contract runs out or the Raiders cut him because he’s so completely inept as a quarterback. Maybe he’ll revive his career in another city playing for another team just like Cedric Benson did when he left Chicago and joined Cincinnati.

The problem with that argument, however, is that it would still mean that Russell isn’t trying to better himself as a player. If he knows he’s in a bad spot in Oakland, there are measures he can take to try and improve his situation instead of just accepting it. He could study more film, he could come to practice early and stay late and he could become a leader – all things that good players on good teams talk about being necessities in the NFL.

Russell certainly has the physical talent to succeed in this league. He just doesn’t have the attitude and desire to want to become successful and therefore, he never will.

Photo from fOTOGLIF