Tunsil free-falls to 13th after video emerges
Three weeks ago, Laremy Tunsil was the likely No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
Thursday, he suffered one of the biggest and most bizarre falls down the draft board in recent history, after a video of him wearing a gas mask and smoking a bong was posted on his verified Twitter account just before the start of the draft.
The video — and the entire Twitter account — were quickly deleted, but the damage was done.
The damage might just be starting for the football program at Mississippi, where Tunsil played. Later Thursday a post on Instragram led to Tunsil saying he took money from a school athletics department staffer while in college, which would be a violation of NCAA rules.
Notre Dame’s Ronnie Stanley was the first offensive tackle drafted, to the Baltimore Ravens at No. 6. And then Jack Conklin, a tackle from Michigan State, went at No. 8 to the Tennessee Titans, the team that was so often linked to Tunsil in February and March when they owned the draft’s top pick.
Tunsil’s slide ended at 9:43 p.m. ET, when the Miami Dolphins selected him at No. 13.
Tunsil bearhugged his mother, exhaled deeply and made the long walk from the green room at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University to greet NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. He smiled as he held up his new teal Dolphins jersey, but it hardly could have been the happy draft mo-
ment he envisioned.
“It was a huge mistake,” Tunsil told reporters nearly an hour later. “Things happen. I can’t control (people) getting in my phone and hacking my Instagram and my Twitter.”
Tunsil was also asked twice if he took money from a coach while at Mississippi. At first, he denied it but then said, “I have to say yeah.” While he was being asked if he had met with the NCAA, he was ushered off the interview podium and behind a closed door.
On his Instagram account, someone posted screenshots of alleged text messages between Tunsil and John Miller, assistant athletics director for football operations, in which Tunsil asks for money to pay rent and also for his mother’s $305 electric and water bill. In reference to the former, Miller makes a reference to “Barney.” Barney Farrar is Ole Miss’ assistant athletics director for high school and junior colleges.
Messages left with Ole Miss were not immediately returned.
It was all part of what will be remembered as one of the most unusual draft-night experiences for any first-round pick.
All this comes less than two days after Tunsil’s stepfather, Lindsey Miller, filed a civil law- suit late Tuesday against Tunsil, claiming he attacked Miller last summer.
According to The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger, the lawsuit alleges that Tunsil defamed Miller’s character and caused the “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
“The timing of the lawsuit is transparent while simultaneously counterintuitive. The photo is obviously meant to hurt his draft status and seems to have had the desired effect,” Tunsil’s attorney, Steven Farese, told USA TODAY Sports via email.
“I am saddened by the viciousness of both acts and disappointed that jealousy and greed are so prevalent in today’s society.”
Though buzz intensified in the 24 hours before the draft that the San Diego Chargers preferred Stanley to Tunsil, this sort of draft free fall showed that more teams must have been concerned about Tunsil’s off-field issues.
The Dolphins were not one of them.
Miami general manager Chris Grier told reporters in South Florida that Tunsil was the No. 2ranked player on the team’s draft board. Team officials began making phone calls Thursday night after the video surfaced to make sure their own internal scouting reports about Tunsil were correct, and they were confident in what they found. Grier said the team thinks the video is 2 years old and that team owner Stephen Ross was on board with the Dolphins selecting Tunsil.
“We know the story behind it,” Grier said, declining to reveal additional details.
Tunsil, who left Ole Miss after his junior season, gave up two sacks in three seasons as Ole Miss’ left tackle.
He sat out the first seven games of the 2015 season, but once he returned the Rebels were a top-10 unit among power five schools in yards per game and sacks per pass attempt.