Quote:Yeah, I'm not expecting this to become a trend, and the request came in before the draft.  Had he put this request in during the draft when his stock really evaporated, then I could see their unwillingness.  As soon as the story broke, his value nose dived.  His agent did the smart thing trying to get him out of the draft.  If it turns out he was indeed innocent of any wrong doing, then the league did stick it to him by costing him potentially millions. 

 

He'll never recoup that money.  What he can do is once his name is cleared, go out and sign a 1 year deal with a team, then go about earning a starting position.  If he's able to do so, he'll be in a position to negotiate a decent bump in pay from there.  Still, he's never going to see the potential windfall he would have had he been selected early in the draft.

Then you will have the player that gets a DUI days before the draft wanting to get out of the draft on the chance that a lawyer will get him off.  I know that is completely other end of spectrum from this but that is how people would work the system.  The league was only half of a member of the CBA the NFLPA was the other half and they both agreed on the rule. 

 

Who screwed him is the investigators on this.  If he truly is not a suspect then go ahead and tell the teams he is not a suspect.  And if it were me I would have been on the first plane to clear my name beating on the police station door knowing how it would change my draft status.  I think this one may be down a dark road in the coming days and weeks personally.

---