To say that Laremy Tunsil, an offensive lineman out of the University of Mississippi, had a bad night at the NFL Draft would be putting it very mildly. It was a downright horror.
Expected to go within the first few picks, Tunsil was sabotaged minutes before the draft started. An unknown enemy hacked his Twitter a posted a video of him smoking from bong attached to a gas mask.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEEL_fPzF6c
Teams went running. Tunsil dropped all the way down to the 13th pick, where the Miami Dolphins may have gotten the steal of the draft. They also may have gotten a player with more baggage than anyone knew.
But the real damage last night was done to Tunsil. The video is reportedly several years old and shows him doing something that a lot of college kids do, albeit with slightly more sophisticated equipment.
By scaring away teams at the top of the draft, the video cost Tunsil millions of dollars. If he was taken in the top four picks he would have likely gotten a contract for at least $25 million. Instead, he’s projected to get $12.5 million.
The drama didn’t end there either. Around the same time that Tunsil was selected, his Instagram was hacked. The hacker posted two screenshots of text messages that showed a conversation between Tunsil and an unidentified Ole Miss athletic department official.
In the texts, Tunsil asked for money to pay his mom’s rent, and request that was seemingly agreed to. That does little to hurt Tunsil, who’s a pro now and can’t be hurt by draconian NCAA rules. But Ole Miss is going to be hearing from the NCAA about and the phone call won’t be cordial.