"I’m ready to play football, man. It’s a love for the game. It’s not all about the money."/"Man, it was a mistake. It happened years ago. Somebody hacked my Twitter account, and that’s how it got on there."
Said Laremy Tunsil, who might have been a #1 pick in the NFL draft, but "a bizarre video was posted on his Twitter account minutes before the start of the draft [that] showed a person smoking from a mask equipped with a bong."
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I've told my kids to post NO videos of themselves online. For nonsense like this.
Tunsil was not going to be the #1 pick in the draft. He did have a chance to be first offensive tackle chosen. Instead, the Ravens chose Ronnie Stanley at #6.
This sorta reminds me of all those times the football player spiked the football a moment before their foot entered the touch down zone.
He was celebrating his victory a few moments too early.
Some interesting backstory here. Barry Petchesky at Deadspin is very good on NFL stories. He writes that the video was offered to Deadspin for money several weeks ago.
We did nothing after that. We will pay for a good story (email us!), but a college kid smoking weed is not a story at all.
His Instagram account also featured phone screens of him texting his assistant AD asking for money for rent and his mother's electricity bills.
This does seem to be that rare case where a celebrity/pro athlete had something embarrassing posted to their Twitter account and claimed the account was hacked and it really was hacked. That's a first.
After the Johnny Manziel meltdown, I expect NFL teams are looking at any early indications of out of control behavior as a "pass on this guy" signal. Maybe another team (like the Dolphins) lower down the draft order picks up a deal, but given the league's suspension policies for off the field behavior, and the lack of hard information to evaluate most players on that issue, its obvious that most teams would rationally react to even a single incident this way.
If only the NFL could set up a drunk/doper/wife beater combine to test potential players' tendencies.
I had 2 reactions. First I saw the women family types around him and the looks on their faces. Whoever did it cost them millions. I would be thinking the same thing about that person.
The second thing I thought was please please please fall to the Seahawks...
His stepdad is suing him and may have done this to convince him to settle.
Joe Hortiz, the Raven's Director of College Scouting, stated this morning on a live radio interview that the news did not cause them to change Tunsil's position on their board.
While media "draft experts" ranked Tunsil higher multiple scouting analysis groups paid by teams reported that Stanley is a better prospect. Deadspin's presumption that he would have gone to Baltimore without this incident is highly speculative at best.
Rick said... Deadspin's presumption that he would have gone to Baltimore without this incident is highly speculative at best.
Yeah. It struck me that had the Ravens (and the Titans, who took OT Jack Conklin at #8) really been all-in on Tunsil, it's hard to imagine them calmly taking a different OT as an equivalent.
Old Miss suddenly got a gaggle of super recruits from all over the South when a new coach took over. That had not happened in 40 years, so we wondered what they were doing.
It is beginning to look like it was the under the radar money in recruiting of poor black family's kids.
Wait--was he hacked-hacked, or Anthony Weiner-hacked?
Yeah, you should change that last paragraph. Tunsil was projected to go #1, but that was before the Rams and the Eagles traded up in order to pick quarterbacks.
As an Aggie, I see your draft pick's issues and raise you Johnny Manziel.
His Instagram account also featured phone screens of him texting his assistant AD asking for money for rent and his mother's electricity bills.
I have to believe that was faked. I know he said they were real in his press conference, but I watched it again and I'm not quite sure he knew exactly what the press was talking about. There wasn't a lot of time in btw the release and his press conference.
The other reason I think they're fake? What responsible college athletic rep would text about something so obviously illegal under NCAA regs? Players get paid, oh yes, but there is no paper trail,. These guys aren't idiots.
As has been stated, Tunsil was never going to be the number 1 pick. The Titans had the #1 pick but they had no intention of using it on an offensive lineman so they traded down. When they did pick at #8, they took another offensive tackle whom many thought was as good or better than Tunsil but it's arguable that they would have taken Tunsil before the video. The Baltimore Ravens reportedly did pass on Tunsil at 6 due to the video. Tunsil fell from maybe 6 to 13, hardly a precipitous fall as these things go but it was the best fall of the day and had a great story so it got an inordinate amount of play.
He was definitely hacked and he was blindsided with questions about the subsequent texting that was exposed about an hour after the video in another format in the short press conference following his pick. He knew about the bong smoking video and may have been somewhat aware that the text conversation had been printed elsewhere but he didn't know the details and fumbled the questions as a result until an agent of his agent, Jimmy Sexton, hustled him off the stage and gave him the low down on the second hack. It's hard to say at this point whether anything improper was revealed.
Ole Miss has been under a nearly four year investigation due to alleged NCAA allegations in Track and Field (promptly fired coach the coach when they found out about the issues), Women's Baskeball (promptly fired coach when they found out about the issues), and Football, the later of which primarily concern an athletics department assistant who was fired prior to the head coach, Huge Freeze's, hiring in 2012 and was recently found to have been taking recruits to Wayne County, MS for ACT testing which appears to have been fraudulent. He was caught at Louisiana Tech, recently, but the investigation revealed that some stuff may have gone on when he was back at Ole Miss around 2010. Tunsil was also investigated primarily due to his using three different loaner cars from a local car dealership for 6 months when his vehicle stopped running and for his recieving a $3000 interest free loan for a down payment on a car when he finally bought one. Ole Miss held him out for 7 games as a result of this and it is beliefed that this was done while working with the NCAA so that the punishment for these offenses would already have been paid or at least mitigated. That's very normal in these type investigations. The investigation has concluded and it may be that what Tunsil seemed to have revealed or affirmed last night, if he wasn't totally confused, was already known by the NCAA. Ole Miss has already prepared their response to the NCAA Notice of Infractions (or whatever it's called) and will file it in about 3 weeks and publish it when they do. Another party requested a 30 extension on the filing about 10 days ago or it would already have been filed and published.
College players with limited resources are allowed to get assistance for things like clothing, rent, utilities, etc. and what was mentioned may have been something along those lines. The coach seemed very casual about it in the conversation and that leads me to belief they weren't trying to conceal it in any way. But we will know soon enough.
Whether it affected his draft or not, that was an awfully mean thing for someone to do.
Mean or not, it was also hilarious.
Freeman Hunt said...
'Whether it affected his draft or not, that was an awfully mean thing for someone to do."
Yes, the pot smoking thing was reportedly several years ago, not that it really matters, and was clearly designed to embarrass him and Ole Miss as Ole Miss had three players go in the first 30 and there has been a lot of competitive jealousy over their rise. The video was reportedly shopped at a price at several sites.
I'm not an insider, by any means, but I did graduate from Ole Miss Law School and I was up there last weekend for a festival and I'm a big fan (may get inspired and drive up (2.5 hours) later for the LSU v. Ole Miss ballgame. I'm a big fan and I pay attention to what goes on. Tunsil is considered to be a very nice guy, hard worker etc., but he did get in a physical altercation which his ex-step father last summer. The step-dad is reportedly out of the picture now and I have never seen or heard a kind word regarding him. The altercation with the step-dad, who later made a lot of allegations, is what led to the Tunsil part of the investigation. I think he was trying to leverage himself into some of the contract money and he has actually filed a bullshit civil suit along those lines two days before the draft. Tunsil doesn't seem to deserve nearly the negative attention he has gotten but he seems to be handling it ok, under the circumstance.
"Somebody hacked my Twitter account, and that’s how it got on there."
Yeah, his stepfather. Cuz smoking pot made him dumb enough to lose control of his passwords.
They didn't mention the REALLY HORRIBLE PART: there's a Confederate flag (!!) on the wall behind him.
They didn't mention the REALLY HORRIBLE PART: there's a Confederate flag (!!) on the wall behind him.
Listening to sports radio right now. One of the idiots is freaking out about that--How could this be?!?!1?!! lol
Ah, the famous "din do nuffin" defense. Second only to "stuck gas pedal" in my experience...
DanTheMan, Tunsil denied absolutely nothing. He owned up to everything shown in the video and in the text (though I think its a fair point what the person above said about it being fake). The only thing he is denying is that he posted the video which seems obviously true. That video likely cost him a few million dollars. As said before, this seems to be a case where his accounts really were hacked and they were clearly coordinated to kill his draft value as they were posted right before the draft. I'll refrain from making other comments about how you worded your retort.
" I didn’t do nothing to nobody." Student athlete.
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