University of Oregon football assistant coach Ra’Shaad Samples was charged with DUI and reckless driving from an incident in April, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Samples reportedly backed his 2026 Ford F-150 into a parked car, a Dodge Ram, that belonged to Eugene resident Steven James Young, and claimed to be someone else when confronted for insurance information.
The name? DeSean Jackson, the former Eagles star receiver.
“After I pulled over and stopped, I gave the driver my license and insurance,” Samples told the outlet. “I gave him my information that included my name. He kept asking me, ‘Who are you? Who are you?’
“He had my name. I got a little frustrated, and I gave him a cheeky response. ‘DeSean Jackson.’ Jackson is my favorite football player.”
From a dashcam video obtained by the outlet, Samples drove off after the incident that shook both vehicles upon impact.
“Oh my god,” someone can be heard saying from inside the Dodge Ram after the crash.
“There’s no [expletive] way right now,” another reportedly said, before adding: “How bad is it?”
Young can be seen in the video assessing the damage to his truck before pulling out of the parking lot and following Samples down Olive Street and 7th Avenue.
Samples’ truck can be seen driving in the middle of two lanes down the road, with a passenger in Young’s car stating: “Yeah, he’s so drunk.”
Young pulled up alongside Samples and yelled out the window, “You just [expletive] hit me, bro.”
Samples only replied, “Did I?”
“Yeah, I got you on dashcam and everything,” Young replied.
In pulling over to discuss the hit, Samples ran a red light as Young’s passengers laughed.
Per the outlet, a field sobriety test was not conducted at the scene when Samples tried to shake hands and offer Young $1,000 to walk away.
“I was like, ‘No,”’ Young told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I was like, ‘I’ve got kids in the car. I’ve got minors in the car. Let’s do this right. Let’s do this correct.’”
Young had three passengers in his car, some of whom were minors at the time.
He and one other passenger reportedly have claimed injuries and hired lawyers.
Samples initially declined to share his insurance information, Young said, but he later sent it and explained he was driving a loaner vehicle on the night of the incident.
The two exchanged numbers at the scene and the first text came from Samples — a screenshot of his USAA insurance app that showed information on prior claims for a different vehicle, and he texted the name “Deshaun Jackson” to go along with the information.
“He told me his name was Deshaun Jackson,” Young said to the outlet. “Me and my buddy looked it up the next day, and we were like, ‘That’s not him.’”
Young explained he later learned Samples’ real name from Eugene police officer Aidan Clark.
However, Samples’ account of the exchange of information to The Oregonian/OregonLive contradicts Young’s.
“I did not realize I backed into anything until I pulled away,” Samples said Tuesday in a statement released through his lawyer.
He claimed he provided a different name — that of the former NFL star — to Young in jest.
While Samples later asked him over text message not to report the incident and offered payment up to $2,500 and football tickets, Young sent his dashcam video to Oregon head coach Dan Lanning.
The school’s athletic department declined to address any specifics of the incident to the outlet.
“We take these matters seriously and have taken appropriate action,” UO athletics said in a written statement to the outlet.
Samples, who is still listed as the Ducks’ assistant head coach and running backs coach on the university’s website, previously appeared in Eugene Municipal Cout on July 20 for an initial hearing.
His next court day is set for Aug. 25.
“I don’t think he’s a bad guy,” Young said. “I think he made a terrible decision. I think since he made that decision, he’s just been trying to cover it all up. And that’s not what you do when you’re teaching young adults to be men.”
Fall camp begins for the Ducks on Wednesday, with their season kicking off Sept. 5 against
Boise State.
