I like former Browns wide receiver Reggie Rucker.

I like him a lot.

I know a lot of people don’t like Rucker, and I can see that, and respect it. He has a personality that can, at times, rub you the wrong way.

But as for me, I liked watching Rucker play when he was starring for those fun and exciting Kardiac Kids teams a little more than 3½ decades ago. And I have enjoyed getting to know him pretty well since then in my work covering the Browns. He’s a good guy, and a very well-spoken and intelligent one, too, especially when it comes to football. He really knows the game. He can look at a player and tell if he has a chance to make it. I’ve learned a lot about the sport from him.

That’s what makes his recent troubles so hard to take, and even harder to watch.

To say that his life is spinning out of control might not be stating it accurately. Rather, it’s probably understating it. It’s an unmitigated disaster indeed, sadly so.

Rucker’s issues – most of them at least – are well-documented.

He was already bracing for his sentencing for embezzling millions – yes, millions – of dollars from his non-violent non-profits. That’s like stealing out of the collection plate at church.

Now comes a new problem, as he is alleged to have assaulted a fellow player at a golf course last Saturday – a week ago today — in suburban Cleveland’s Highland Heights. According to a police report, Rucker, 68, grabbed a 28-year-old Cleveland man by the throat and pushed him, and also threatened to shoot him.

We’ll see how this all plays out, but this is not the first time Rucker has been involved in an alleged incident at a Cleveland area golf course. He also reportedly exchanged words with some of his former teammates at a charity golf event several years ago.

Nothing really came of that – it was never made public, as cooler heads prevailed to keep it out of the police blotter and thus the news – but there’s an ugly pattern developing here.

After his conviction on the embezzlement charges, to which Rucker freely admitted he was guilty, he said he thinks his problems might be tied at least in part to concussion issues he incurred while playing football.

Who knows?

But this much we do know: Rucker’s situation is a particularly sad one for everybody involved. The thing about those members of the Kardiac Kids – and what continues to endear them to Browns fans even now – is that they were great players who were also great men.

Some of have had issues – nobody is perfect — but none of the storylines have played out so dramatically right in front of us like they have in Rucker’s case. And now the people who cheered him so wildly back in the day are shaking their heads in disbelief.

Let’s hope that somehow, some way, there’s some kind of palatable end to all this.

Reggie Rucker, someone who has given a lot of himself to this community, deserves that – and then some.