Ex-football star pleads guilty in driving death

A former high school and small-college football star who had aspirations of playing professionally pleaded guilty Monday to negligent homicide while driving under the influence of alcohol for the November accident that killed his younger brother's best friend and River Hill High School teammate, the Baltimore Sun reports.

David Erdman, 22, of the 4300 block of Heritage Hill Lane in Ellicott City, was driving his brother Thomas and friend Steven Dankos home from a party in the early morning of Nov. 29 when he lost control of his pickup truck on Folly Quarter Road in Glenelg.

The force of the crash ejected Dankos, 17, from the bed of the truck, which struck a set of stone pillars and overturned. Dankos was pronounced dead at the scene. Both Erdman and his brother, a football star in his own right, were taken for treatment at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

According to Erdman's attorney, Jeff Harding, the three had been drinking, and Erdman said he didn't know that Dankos was in the bed of the truck. Harding said Dankos and the younger Erdman had been sick from drinking earlier in the night and had passed out in the truck.