Ole Miss tackle Laremy Tunsil lived through a draft day nightmare after an unauthorized video was posted to his Twitter account just before the draft. But the Miami Dolphins ended his fall by taking him with the No. 13 overall pick.
The video showed Tunsil wearing a gas mask and smoking through a bong. It was quickly deleted and Tunsil's entire Twitter account was deleted soon after that. Multiple teams took Tunsil off the board, but Miami decided he was worth any risk. NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported that Tunsil's agent called teams and told them that his client's account was hacked. Plenty of damage was done, but Tunsil was visibly relieved to still be a high pick.
"Somebody hacked my account," Tunsil told NFL Network's Deion Sanders."It was a mistake. It happened years ago, like I said before. Somebody hacked my Twitter account and that's how it got on there. It's a crazy world. Things happen for a reason. I'm glad to be in Miami. I'm going to work my butt off and give it all I got."
Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill could wind up being the biggest beneficiary of the draft night drama. He got the most talented pass protector in the draft. Dolphins kingpin Mike Tannenbaum took a risk when he traded down from No. 8 to No. 13 overall in a move with the Eagles. But he wound up getting a top-five talent.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier commented on the Tunsil situation.
"We had heard rumors, but we had done work. We had known about it," Grier said. "The video is two years old. So, from all the information we had, we were comfortable with it."
Grier added,"He's a smart kid. He's very football intelligent. We talked to the coaches and the staff there and when you go watch this guy practice and play, he loves ball. This guy is one of those grinders. There's no doubt that this guy loves football and football is very important to him."
There is no doubt the video made an immediate impact on Tunsil's draft day. Once projected to be a potential No. 1 overall pick, Tunsil was completely taken off the board by the Baltimore Ravens according to NFL Media's Aditi Kinkhabwala. The Ravens wound up drafting Notre Dame tackle Ronnie Stanley.
A member of the Ravens staff told Kinkhabwala that Tunsil was originally ahead of Stanley on the Ravens board. (Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said in his press conference that Stanley was rated higher.) The Titans, once linked to Tunsil, wound up trading up for Michigan State tackle Jack Conklin.
Rapoport reported that the Ravens weren't the only team to take Tunsil off their board. But Tunsil passed all of his drug tests at Ole Miss, according to Rapoport. Tunsil told Sanders that the video was "years old."
Perhaps the craziest part of the story: That wasn't the only social media fire that Tunsil was forced to put out all night. After Tunsil was drafted, an exchange was posted to his Instagram account with the quote: "Coach Freeze and the whole Ole Miss programs are snakes. They cheat!"
The post purported to show an exchange between Tunsil and a member of the Ole Miss staff that involved an exchange of money. There was no way to verify the accuracy of the exchange, and Tunsil's account was deleted.
Tunsil was asked whether he ever exchanged money with a school official, and gave a mixed response.
The University of Mississippi released a statement is response to Tunsil's comment:
"The university is aware of the reports from the NFL Draft regarding Laremy Tunsil and potential NCAA violations during his time at Ole Miss. Like we do whenever an allegation is brought to our attention or a potential violation is self-discovered, we will aggressively investigate and fully cooperate with the NCAA and the SEC."
Add it all up and this was a story unlike any other we've seen on draft night. Time will tell if the NFL teams that passed on Tunsil were rash in taking him off their board.
