In a meeting with the Steelers’ brass at the Scouting Combine, Ohio State offensive tackle Mike Adams told them he never smoked pot. When Adams’ drug test came back positive for marijuana, the Steelers decided that a guy who had looked them in the eye and lied to them wasn’t the kind of guy they wanted on their team, so they removed him from their draft board, even though they thought highly of his on-field performance.
“We were point-blank with him,” General Manager Kevin Colbert said, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We said, ‘Mike, you’re off our board.’”
So why did the Steelers draft Adams on Friday night?
“He sought us out,” Colbert said. “He requested a face-to-face with me, Art Rooney and Mike Tomlin, and we presented it to him: These are the stipulations that you have to accomplish for consideration for us to draft you, which the young man did. He met our criteria, met our stipulations.”
Colbert declined to say precisely what those stipulations were, but Adams did enough of the right things between the Combine and the draft that he got himself back on the board. And Adams said he’s thrilled about that.
“I’m just happy to be a Steeler and very relieved that it’s all over,” Adams said. “I love this organization and I’m glad to be a part of it. Ever since I imagined playing in the NFL, the Steelers are the team I wanted. I grew up in Farrell, Pa., and when I was 4 years old my entire bedroom was Pittsburgh Steelers stuff. So it was important for me to reach out to them.”
And reaching out to them has paid off well for Adams.