The Detroit Lions selected him with the second overall pick in the 2003 NFL draft, but he was out of the league after only three years due to injuries and off-field issues.

[5] He won the state title in the 400-meter dash his senior year, beating fellow NFL player Carl Ford who finished in second place.

[7] His stock went up dramatically in his junior year when, in a game against Notre Dame, he outjumped two defenders to catch a Jeff Smoker pass in the back of the end zone, then managed to keep his left foot in bounds to score a touchdown.

Years later, Lions general manager Matt Millen said that in hindsight, he made a mistake by letting Rogers be away from the team for an extended period of time.

In April 2010, U.S. federal judge Julian A. Cook ruled that Rogers had to pay $6.1 million of his signing bonus.

[4] As of April 2017, Rogers had lived in Fort Myers, Florida and worked at an auto repair shop.

[21] Following the injuries he suffered during the early part of his career in Detroit, Rogers developed an addiction to the prescription medication containing an opioid Vicodin, which also contains acetaminophen, a product sold over-the-counter as Tylenol but is known to cause severe liver failure[22] when taken in the dosages that were allegedly given to him by Lions team physicians.

In December 2008, Rogers was sentenced to attend drug court or face jail time after violating his probation.

[25] On September 16, 2009, Rogers was arrested in Novi, Michigan for driving under the influence of alcohol after police found him unresponsive behind the wheel of his car.