Jamar Goff, the 23-year-old foster son of Food Network star Ree Drummond, was arrested on the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus after officers said he fled a handcuffing attempt, struck a police officer, and was later found with methamphetamine and a glass pipe. He now faces four charges, including second-degree assault on a police officer, and remains in custody at the Jefferson County Jail as of the latest local reporting.
According to court documents cited by FOX 5 New York, officers responding to a suspicious-person call found Goff sleeping shirtless on a bench near a campus fountain. When officers learned of an outstanding arrest warrant and tried to handcuff him, Goff allegedly ran and struck an officer with an open palm before he was caught. Court documents state he told officers he had been waiting on campus for someone who would sell him “ice,” a street term for methamphetamine.
The pursuit reportedly continued near the emergency entrance of the UAB Women and Infants Center and Children's Hospital of Alabama, where officers pepper-sprayed and tackled Goff after he allegedly struck an officer's chin, according to WBRC. Officers recovered a discarded backpack containing a Cash App card, a glass pipe with burnt residue, and baggies that field-tested positive for methamphetamine, the station reported, with additional suspected meth found during jail booking. FOX 5 New York's account of the same arrest cites court documents noting officers found a glass pipe in Goff's backpack along with 1.8 grams of methamphetamine on his person.
Charges and Bond
Goff was booked on second-degree assault on a police officer, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, attempting to elude a police officer, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Bond figures differ slightly between outlets: FOX 5 New York reported bond set at $35,000, while Complex reported a total bond of $37,000 across the four charges. Under Alabama Code Section 13A-6-21, second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer performing a lawful duty is a Class C felony, carrying one to 10 years in prison and fines up to $15,000, according to FindLaw.
This is not Goff's first documented brush with law enforcement. In May 2025, he was arrested after allegedly biting the hand of a detention or correctional officer while listed as homeless and employed at a McDonald's, PopCulture reported. Court records obtained in September 2026 also showed Goff had voluntarily checked into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Birmingham on February 5, 2026, requesting a 30-day detox for alcohol dependency — about seven months before his arrest on the UAB campus, per TMZ.
From Pawhuska Football Star to Drummond Foster Son
Goff's path to the Drummond family began through football. He earned 2021 Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State honors as a defensive lineman at Pawhuska High School, recording 75 tackles — 25 for loss — during his 2020 senior season, according to FanBuzz, while playing on the same Pawhuska team as Ree Drummond's biological sons. Goff went on to commit to Division II football at the University of Central Oklahoma in February 2021, signing during the same recruitment cycle that saw Drummond's son Bryce Drummond commit to play quarterback at North Texas, per 247Sports.
Ree Drummond took Goff in as a foster son in 2018, and TMZ's reporting on the family recounts how she wrote in her 2020 book “Frontier Follies” that Goff moved into the household unexpectedly carrying a single bag after becoming friends with her sons, later growing closer to the family while recovering from a severe ATV foot injury. Drummond publicly disclosed that she was fostering Goff in November 2020, by which point he had already been living with the family for about a year and a half. Ree Drummond and her husband, Ladd Drummond, share four biological children — Alex, 29, Paige, 27, Bryce, 24, and Todd, 22 — and Goff became, in FOX 5 New York's telling, an inextricable part of the Drummond family.
A Private Life Behind a Public Brand
Drummond built her “Pioneer Woman” media franchise around country cooking and lifestyle content based out of the family's working cattle ranch in Osage County, Oklahoma, according to Parade. Despite that public-facing brand, Drummond has said she wanted Jamar's story to be his own and not fodder for her social media, and the state fostering agency has strict rules against posting about foster children online. The Drummond family has not issued public comment on Goff's arrest as of the latest reporting.
