CHARLOTTE (Court TV) — Who is Rae Carruth? The question is central to the former NFL player's capital murder trial. In almost four weeks of testimony, what has emerged so far is a portrait of the athlete as a young man — an impressionable 24-year-old who, when not playing football in front of 80,000 screaming fans, would bounce from good-natured Playstation tournaments and volunteer work to a shadier social world rife with hangers-on and fairweather friends.

This week the defense tried to focus jurors on the wholesome aspects of Carruth's character with a parade of Carruth's former teammates who took the stand. In the process, jurors got a glimpse not only into Carruth's character, but also into the world of professional football.

"Coming into the NFL, you're a player who never had any money. There are many people who want to be associated with you," said former teammate Leonard Wheeler during testimony Tuesday. "People all of sudden become your friends who were not your friends. It's easy to get caught up with it."

Wheeler added that only through choosing his friends wisely has he been able to survive nine years in the NFL without getting into trouble. Although this veteran wisdom was evidently lost on Carruth, the Panthers who took the stand said they didn't expect him to be someone who especially needed it.

Carruth's teammates agreed that he kept a relatively even keel amid the temptations of life as an NFL player. Wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad described Carruth as a quiet, thoughtful teammate. "Rae was the type of guy who avoided conflict," Muhammad said on the stand Wednesday. "He wasn't the type to argue."

Carruth didn't "party" in the traditional sense, never touching drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. But Panthers linebacker Hannibal Navies testified that he enjoyed himself nevertheless. "He was always a fun person to be around. He was always laughing," Navies said. "I never saw him down. He was always pretty much energetic."

While the trio of players all presented themselves as happily married men who volunteer regularly for community service, the primary defense witnesses were crack dealer Michael Kennedy and Candace Smith, stripper who allegedly threatened Carruth with a box cutter.

While we do not know whether Carruth masterminded the murder of Cherica Adams, the question begs to be asked: How did a seemingly mild-mannered young man ended up consorting with the likes of Kennedy, Smith, and co-defendant Van Brett Watkins?

Although some people say that hustlers and hangers-on merely prey on professional football players or that the athletes attract trouble by considering themselves above the law, some commentators see a different, and far more troublesome, source of the problem.

"It's cultural. It always has been cultural," said former Miami Dolphins wide receiver Mercury Morris during a Court TV chat in response to a question about the origins of football players' social problems.

Morris added that most football players today are African-Americans from underprivileged backgrounds, which often don't prepare them well for life in general, much less an existence in the spotlight.

"The top 3 problems… teen violence, teen pregnancy, and teen drug use," said Morris. "When I graduated from high school, in 1965, they were running in the hallways, talking in class, and being late. Chewing gum was number 4."

Young athletes end up moving quickly from drug-ridden, gang-powered neighborhoods to the adulation-saturated milieu of professional sports. Sometimes trouble occurs when past and present meet.

"(Athletes) have a gang culture at times, and they are being asked to come into the NFL and simply play football. So they bring with them whatever it is that shaped and molded how they saw themselves," said Morris.

Of course the large majority of athletes from tough backgrounds do not get into trouble with the law. But some young men, plucked from the underclass because of their athletic ability, forget to check violent tendencies at the door to fame and fortune.

Morris noted of Carruth, "If he didn't play football, he might well be in the same position." But if he didn't play football, would anybody care?