Society wants crimes; needs crimes.

We need criminals to identify ourselves with, to secretly envy, and to stoutly punish. Criminals represent our alter egos ─ our bad selves ─ rejected and protected.

They do for us the forbidden, illegal things that we wish to do, and, like the scapegoats of old, they bear the burdens of our displaced guilt and punishment.

─ Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist

Excerpted from Born to Be Wild by Barry Bowe

The header photo shows Lawrence Phillips on his way to an 80-yard touchdown romp against Oklahoma State on August 31, 1995.

By that time in his life, because of his exceptional football ability, the world around Lawrence Phillips treated him like a privileged character. His off-the-field misbehavior was overlooked. No one ever held his feet to the fire when he misbehaved, or made him be accountable for his actions.

Big mistake.

The first time I heard the name of Lawrence Phillips was back in 1995 while he was a star running back at Nebraska – not long after he scored that 80-yard touchdown against Oklahoma State. Through the grapevine, Phillips got wind that his girlfriend was cheating on him with the Cornhuskers quarterback.

Phillips raced to his girlfriend’s residence and found her in bed – as suspected – engaging in sex with the quarterback. Phillips then beat his girlfriend and dragged her down a flight of steps by her hair.

He pleaded no contest to trespassing and domestic assault. But he did not go to jail because Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne interceded on Phillips’ behalf. Phillips was a star and the Cornhuskers were in the midst of two straight national championships. Osborne did not want to lose his star. In the eyes of the coach, Phillips’ contributions on the football field far outweighed his trouble-making off the field.

Phillips was suspended several times during his days at Nebraska, but he was always reinstated in time for a big game.

More mistakes.

The St. Louis Rams drafted Phillips in the first round of the 1996 NFL draft, but he never lived up to his potential. His career fizzled out in St. Louis in less than two years. Phillips then had flings with the Miami Dolphins, the Barcelona Dragons of NFL Europe, the San Francisco 49ers, the Florida Bobcats of the Arena League, and with the Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League.

His play at every step was less-than-inspired. In fact, for whatever reason, in a 1999 game against the Arizona Cardinals, his indifference to engage blitzing safety Aeneas Williams led to the premature termination of Steve Young’s career. The video of that hit is below.

Watch closely because the action happens fast – and the video’s only 15 seconds long.

Number-81 lining up at wide receiver is T.O. When the ball is snapped, T.O. heads down field to begin a pass pattern.

Cards safety Aeneas Williams transforms himself into a blur on the safety blitz. Lawrence Phillips was supposed to block Williams – but didn’t – allowing Williams to lay the lumber to 49ers quarterback Steve Young.

Young went down in a heap – and out. He suffered a concussion on the hit. The concussion lingered and ended Steve Young’s career.

The following week, Lawrence Phillips was a no-show for the first two practices. When he arrived for the next practice, he refused to take instructions from the coaching staff. He was suspended and missed that week’s game versus the New Orleans Saints.

The 49ers released Phillips the next week and Lawrence Phillips never played another game in the NFL.

Trouble followed Lawrence Phillips at every step of his journey through life:

• While with the Dolphins, he punched a woman who refused to dance with him in a nightclub. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and once again escaped incarceration.

• In San Diego in 2005, he punched and choked another girlfriend.

• One week later, he ran over three teenagers with his vehicle outside the L.A. Coliseum because he thought they robbed him.

Finally, he went to jail – convicted of domestic violence, false imprisonment, and theft of a vehicle. He was sentenced to 31 years in prison and sent to the Kern Valley State Prison in California to serve his time.

Phillips’ cellmate at Kern Valley was a man named Damion Soward – a member of the Inland Empire gang. Soward was serving 82 years for the execution-style murder of rival gang-member Michael Fairly.

But Soward stopped serving his sentence one week ago.

Last Sunday, April 12, prison guards found Soward dead in his cell. The cause of his death was asphyxia by neck compression – and ruled a homicide. In other words, someone strangled Damion Soward.

Prison authorities didn’t have to search far for a suspect.

Lawrence Phillips has been charged with killing his cellmate.

Coming fresh on the heels of the first-degree murder conviction of Aaron Hernandez last week, this incident underscores the preferential treatment that gifted athletes are often afforded. While much ado is always made when situations like these arise, the furor soon dissipates – forgotten until another star athlete runs afoul of the law and it starts all over again.

Society needs these crimes.

Barry Bowe is the author of Born to Be Wild, 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant, and 12 Best Eagles QBs.