For close to two decades, Terrell Suggs was a prominent figure in the Baltimore Ravens’ lineup. The linebacker has been making wonderful impacts since the inception of his professional career. In addition to leading the team to clinch the Super Bowl XLVII in 2012, Terrell Suggs is a seven-time Pro Bowl selection. He won the league’s best defender award in 2011 and has been named All-Pro twice. Suggs’ progressive success in the NFL has continued to raise curiosities among football fans on how he managed to build such an enviable career.
Terrell Suggs’ Early Years And Career Beginnings
Terrell Raymonn Suggs was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A on the 11th day of October 1982. The child of African-American parents Laverne Diane and Donald Lee Suggs, he is black by ethnicity and American by nationality. Growing up, he spent his early days in Minnesota’s capital city of Saint Paul, where he also completed his early education. Subsequently, he moved to Arizona, where he attended Chandler High School before finally graduating from Hamilton High School.
During his high school days, Terrell was an active member of his schools’ football team. For his outstanding performances, the budding football star received recognition from various American companies. Gatorade and USA Today named him the Arizona Player of the Year, Parade and USA Today named him to high school All-American team, while Sporting News ranked him the nation’s 60th best player.
After high school, Terrell Suggs enrolled at Arizona State University in 2000, where he played as a defensive end for the university’s football team, Arizona State Sun Devils. Terrell had a very successful two-year college career, leaving Arizona State in 2002 with a record of 163 tackles, 44 quarterback sacks, and 14 fumbles. He also received the title of a unanimous first-team All-American.
Tidbits About His Professional Career
The linebacker entered the NFL draft of 2003 as Baltimore Ravens’ 10th overall pick of the year. After penning down his rookie contract, Terrell Suggs made his first appearance for the team in the 2003/04 season. He was quick to make a significant impression on the Ravens, ending his first professional season with a record of 27 tackles, 6 fumbles, and 1 interception. For his exceptional performances, Terrell emerged the Defensive Rookie of the Year.
The following season, he earned his first Pro Bowl selection after making a total of 60 tackles and 10.5 sacks in the season. In 2005, Terrell moved from the outside linebacker position to the defensive end position. Although he initially struggled with the change, he soon adapted to the defense techniques of the team. Suggs eventually emerged one of the NFL best overall defenders after averaging 12.6 points in the 2006 season. The NFL star got his second pro-bowl call-up that year, with five subsequent Pro Bowl selections coming his way in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2017.
The linebacker got his breakthrough in 2012 while leading the Ravens to the Super Bowl XLVII competition. The Ravens emerged victorious in the competition after beating San Francisco 49ers 34-31. Terrell has since become a formidable force in the defense line of the Ravens, explaining his 16-season long stay with the team. He eventually left at the end of 2018 as the team’s all-time sacks leader.
The NFL Star’s Injuries And Downtimes
Despite his apparent success, Terrell Suggs’s football career has not been without some low points and trying times. In 2005, Suggs ended the season with a career-low record of just eight sacks. Another of Terrell’s unproductive season was 2009 when he recorded only 4.5 sacks and missed three games due to a leg injury. Suggs would later miss the first eight games of the season in 2012 after tearing his Achilles in April of that year.
Later in the same year, 2012, he suffered a grade 3 arm bicep tear during the Ravens’ match against the Pittsburgh Steelers on December 2. During the season opener against the Denver Broncos on September 13, 2015, Terrell Suggs once again suffered an Achilles tear, which caused him to leave before the end of the game. The injury also brought his 2015 season to an abrupt end. During the 2016 season, the linebacker once again tore his arm bicep, ending the season with a career-low record of 8 sacks.
His Financial Worth And The Best Moments of His Career
On leaving the Ravens at the end of 2018, Terrell Suggs signed a one-season deal with the Arizona Cardinals on March 13, 2019. The Cardinals, however, released him in December of the same year, just three weeks to the end of the season. He was immediately taken in by the Kansas City Chiefs to replace their prominent defender, Alex Okafor, who tore his pectoral muscle during the club’s Dec. 15 match against the Denver Broncos.
Quite unexpectedly, Terrell Suggs joined the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LIV team and led them to victory the same season, recording his second Super Bowl win. He ended the 2019 season with 139 sacks, ranking #8 among NFL’s All-Time sacks. Terrell is also one of the only two 2003 drafts that still have active NFL careers. With a Super Bowl win at this time of his career, Suggs, who had intended to end his football career after his one year stint with the Cardinals, now appears not to be thinking about hanging his boots yet.
Owing to his career success, Terrell Suggs has accumulated massive wealth for himself through juicy paychecks. In 2014, he signed a 4-year contract extension with the Ravens worth $28.5 million and earned a basic salary of $4 million. That year, he ranked #96 on Forbes‘ Highest-Paid Athletes with a total annual income of $17.6 million. That being said, Suggs’ net worth is currently estimated at $22 million.
Terrell Suggs’ Dysfunctional Relationship With Candace Williams
Without a doubt, Terrel Suggs has been enjoying a burgeoning football career. Nevertheless, the same could not be said of his relationships and marital life. For several years, the former Ravens linebacker dated Candace Williams, an American lady who only surfaced in the spotlight for her relationship with the NFL star. Their relationship was, however, fraught with domestic violence, with Williams being on the receiving end since moving in with him in 2007.
In December 2009, the conflicts between them continued as Candace came up with several allegations of domestic abuse against Terrell, demanding $70 million in damages. According to Williams, Suggs threw a soap dispenser at her, hit her on the chest, and emptied a bottle of bleach on her and their one-year-old son. He had earlier kicked her on the face, breaking her nose in October of the same year. However, for reasons not made open to the media, Suggs got no criminal charges for the allegations, except for a temporary restraining order against Williams.
After a while, the court dropped the lawsuits, and the troubled couple reconciled. 2012 was another time the couple’s chaotic relationship witnessed a significant event. Candace’s account has it that they were in her car with their two kids when a quarrel broke out. Terrell then hit her on the neck, pushed her out of the car, and drove off at full speed with her hand stuck to the seat belt. She was dragged along until she was able to disengage her hand from the belt, sustaining severe bruises.
In addition to the ugly incident, which occurred in September 2012, Candace Williams also alleged that Terrell Suggs punishes their kids the corporal way, as well as smokes marijuana in their presence. She, therefore, applied for sole custody of the kids alongside a restraining order that will keep Suggs away from them.
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Their Marriage And Eventual Separation
To the surprise of all, Terrell and Candance took their relationship to the next level barely three months later. The pair walked down the aisle on December 14, 2012, two days after Candace withdrew the restraining order she filed against her man the previous month. Terrell also had his seven guns, which he surrendered as part of the protective order returned to him.
Their wedding, which came off at the Four Seasons Hotel was a low-key ceremony with about thirty guests. Howbeit, after struggling for two years to make their relationship work, Candace Williams could no longer take it. She, therefore, filed for divorce in December 2014. Before her divorce application, the couple has lived separately from each other for about a year.
This time, Williams’ problem with Suggs was not battery or any other form of domestic violence, it was infidelity – adultery. Their divorce was finalized amidst Terrell’s denial of her allegations. Afterward, the estranged couple got joint custody of their two adorable kids – daughter Dhani (b. 2007), and son Duke (b. 2008).
