A Complete Recap of Laremy Tunsil's Magical Night At The 2016 NFL Draft
What a night. What an incredible, strange, weird, magnificent train wreck of an evening for Laremy Tunsil. Actually scratch that, it will end up just being a bit of a PR hit and a boatload of money lost for Tunsil – Huge Freeze and the Ole Miss program though, that’s whatever is worse than a trainwreck.
In case you missed out or couldn’t keep up last night (I was doing this as my job and I still had trouble staying on top of every new development), here’s a complete breakdown of what went down.
Some background:
Who’s Laremy Tunsil?
6’5″ 315 pound beast of a tackle. Missed a bunch of games due to suspension (more on that next) but was widely considered the #1 pick in the Draft for a while…eventually settled in to an estimated #3 draft spot, and was called by many people as the best talent available.
Why have you seen him on Barstool?
So yeah, there were some “red flags” on his scouting report. And remember that Stepfather! He’s important.
Draft time rolls around, everybody settling in, nervous and excited. And 10 minutes before Goodell steps on the stage…this gets tweeted from Tunsil’s official, verified Twitter account.
The internet knows about it instantly obviously. It flies around Twitter and the blogs at lightning speed. ESPN finally acknowledges it when they notice Tunsil starting to slide down the board. He’ll end up dropping to 13th, where the Dolphins scoop him up (great pick).
How much did that bong hit cost him?
MarketWatch has a great breakdown but the short version is…a lot.
If you believe he was a 1-3 pick, we’re talking a cool $10+ million loss. If you look at where the first tackle went, to the Ravens at 6, we’re talking $8 million. Last year the #1 pick Jameis signed a 4 year $23.5 mil contract, while the 13 pick, OT Andrus Peat, signed for 4 years $11.4. That’s less than half.
Yikes.
Deion Asks Tunsil Live If His Stepfather Did It
Give Tunsil credit. While all of this shit was breaking around him and all eyes were on him, he kept his composure and played it cool and gave some great, professional media cliche responses. Well, until a little bit of a breakdown later, but we’ll get there.
Stepfather Denies Involvement On TMZ
Meanwhile a statement from Tunsil’s agent “leaks” online and goes crazy viral.
It was pretty obviously fake, courtesy of DudeYouCrazy, but pretty hilarious.
But that wasn’t the end of it! You may think a video of you taking a gas mask bong hit going viral 600 seconds before teams decide to draft you is the worst thing that could happen…boy would you be wrong.
Tunsil’s Instagram Hacked…Someone Releases Text Messages Showing Him Asking For And Accepting Money From Ole Miss Coaches
Now THIS is the juicy stuff. Bear in mind none of this is really “bad” for Tunsil at this point. The bong hit cost him a shit load of money (that he can maybe make back with his upcoming lawsuit), but the NFL doesn’t really care about your NCAA violations. He’s pretty much in the clear for all this. But Ole Miss? Hugh Freeze? That program? FUCKED.
Especially after…
Tunsil Admits He Took Money While On Stage…Then Gets Rushed Off
Whoever the hell let this kid sit on a stage and answer questions from professional reporters should be shot. Not just fired, but removed from the gene pool altogether. Remarkably stupid.
And that’s about it…at least for now. Tunsil will be fine and most likely have a great career. Ole Miss…well let’s just say I wouldn’t want to wake up a Rebels fan or employee this morning.
