Since the end of his NFL career, Wallace has periodically struggled with substance abuse and experienced bouts of homelessness.

Wallace had 20 interceptions with the Wildcats, the second-most in school history, with 19 of those coming in his junior and senior years.

The year after his football career ended, his mother died and he began to abuse alcohol and use crack cocaine.

He has battled addictions to numerous drugs, including crack, alcohol, and heroin, throughout his life, and has disappeared for years at a time.

[1] Ted Jackson, a photojournalist for The Times-Picayune, discovered him homeless on the streets of New Orleans in 1990, and published a photo he took of the former player, which inspired Wallace to make an attempt at recovery; at the time, his whereabouts had been unknown for roughly a decade.

[6] In August 2020, photojournalist Ted Jackson released a biography of Wallace's life titled You Ought To Do A Story About Me.

The two were interviewed by The Today Show, NPR's Weekend Edition and Access Hollywood detailing on how they met, became friends and eventually ended up collaborating on the book.