Roman Phifer had just finished his first season as a linebacker with the Los Angeles Rams when riots erupted in the streets of Los Angeles in the spring of 1992.
Phifer had watched video of Rodney King being savagely beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department a year earlier, and he saw the streets of the city he lived in break out in fiery protest when the officers were acquitted of most charges.
But for a young NFL player living a world away in a nice apartment on the west side of the city and feeling invincible in life, none of what Phifer saw seemed real until he was pulled over one evening a few months later while driving his Mercedes-Benz through the streets of Culver City.