Collins maintains he’s innocent of bribery allegations
DALLAS — Guess NFL officials got fed up with the strategy of trying to make them look bad over the La’el Collins suspension.
The response: We see your death of a weight and conditioning coach and an uncle’s funeral as legitimate excuses to miss tests and raise you a bribery allegation.
Collins will miss his second consecutive game Monday night when Dallas hosts Philadelphia. The Cowboys right tackle is scheduled to miss a total of five games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
The case, which has been simmering for more than six months, is as convoluted as it is contentious. The latest revelation that Collins attempted to bribe a sample collector, first reported by ESPN on Sunday, has taken this to a new level.
Collins is adamant he did nothing wrong, sources stress. Why would he try to bribe someone when he hasn’t produced a positive test for marijuana? It makes no sense.
Any comments made by Collins along those lines to a sample collector were clearly intended as a joke and should be viewed that way, sources contend. That’s the stance.
Here’s the problem: That’s a bit like walking into an airport and joking you have a gun. It’s a joke that carries consequences.
Darren Jones represents Collins. Peter Schaffer was hired to assist with the appeal. The Cowboys have been apprised every step along the way.
Multiple sources acquainted with the prolonged process say the initial suspension of five games was lowered to three games and then to two, the final reduction brokered by the NFL Players Association. There was a serious discussion among the player’s inner circle and family at that stage about whether or not it was in his best interest to take the two games and move on.
Since three games were sliced off the initial suspension, there was a sense among some that the league’s case would crumble if pushed even further. And Collins,
sources said, didn’t believe he did anything to warrant a suspension. That’s when his representatives took it to arbitration, timed to ensure he would be able to play in the team’s regular-season opener against Tampa Bay.
The arbitrator not only ruled against Collins, but adjusted the suspension back to five games. A separate appeal has now been filed, but chances for a reversal appear unlikely.
Shortly after the suspension was announced, there were reports that the issue with Collins involved tests that were missed. One came the day the players were sent home after Markus Paul, the Cowboys strength and conditioning coach, died. Another came when Collins was out of town for an uncle’s funeral.
The revised substance-abuse policy doesn’t allow for suspensions for positive marijuana tests. But, it does permit the league to take action for a “failure to cooperate with testing.’’
Sunday’s report that Collins tried to bribe a sample collector clearly surfaced to counter the strategy in Collins’ camp to paint the league as unreasonable in the court of public opinion.
If one side or the other doesn’t de-escalate in the coming days, this will get even messier.
Collins loses nearly $2 million in salary because of the suspension and per the CBA he voids the injury guarantee worth $6.4 million in his 2022 salary.
With Collins out, it means Terence Steele will get the call against the Eagles on Monday night. Steele faced Philadelphia twice last season as part of 14 starts during his rookie year.
“Yeah, we’re more familiar with them,” Steele said. “It kind of makes it exciting to see the same guys again and go against them. I’m excited for sure.”
The Eagles’ defensive front will have some changes on the edge with defensive end Brandon Graham out for the season. There’s a possibility Ryan Kerrigan replaces Graham. Kerrigan, who spent 10 seasons with Washington, has 13½ career sacks against Dallas.
“They got some depth at Dend. They got a guy they’re going to throw in there,” Steele said. “Of course, Graham is a huge part of their defense and a leader they’re going to be losing out on. But I feel like they got a decent guy to replace him with.”
In other Cowboys news, Dak Prescott said he didn’t need the long-anticipated return to his home field, where the devastating ankle injury happened last year, to consider himself completely recovered.
The star Dallas quarterback still might take a moment to reflect on the past 50 weeks when the Cowboys play their home opener against Philadelphia — the same way Prescott has while reaching other benchmarks in his recovery.
With this seemingly final milestone, Prescott prefers to focus on the fans. They will fill 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium for the first time since the pandemic kept capacity below 50 percent in 2020 — before and after the compound fracture and dislocation of Prescott’s right ankle.
“Knowing that when I run out there, once again whether it’s pregame or if it’s in a moment within the game, to see up there and with COVID and knowing what we all went through last year, to have them all back, it will be exciting,” Prescott said. “I’ll take that moment, I’ll be thankful for it, but then flip my mind right back again to the Eagles defense and what I have to do to win the game.”