Ex-NFL player gets five years for dealing cocaine

MIAMI (Reuters) - Former National Football League running back Troy Hambrick was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison for trafficking crack cocaine in Florida.

Hambrick, who played for the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals during a five-year professional career, was arrested for allegedly selling nearly 200 grams of crack for $5,600 to an undercover informant in three separate deals last September.

The deals took place near Hambrick's home in Lacoochee, Florida, where he made his name as a high school football star, and from his Lincoln Navigator at a gas station in nearby Dade City, northeast of Tampa.

He entered a guilty plea on February 26 to one count of distributing cocaine. In return, prosecutors dropped two other counts.

Hambrick, 31, played college football at the University of South Carolina and Savannah State University. He played four seasons with the Cowboys and one with the Cardinals in a career that ended following the 2004 season.

Hambrick rushed for 2,179 yards and nine touchdowns during those five seasons, averaging 4.1 yards per carry. His best season was 2003, when he carried 275 times for 932 yards.

His brother, Darren Hambrick, also played in the NFL, with

Dallas, Cleveland and Carolina.

(Reporting by Jim Loney, editing by Philip Barbara)