Early Friday afternoon, Ole Miss offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil’s biggest problem was some criticism he was getting from not running a 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine.
But by the time teammate Robert Nkemdiche was finished talking, Tunsil had plenty more questions to answer.
As Nkemdiche explained that he was only “drunk” and not under the influence of marijuana when he fell out of a fourth-story hotel window, he casually mentioned that “Laremy” was there. Of course, Nkemdiche was arrested for possession of marijuana, which he denied using.
And so a guy who likely is under consideration for the top pick in the draft got dragged into more layers of questions about what happened in that Atlanta hotel room.
“There were more people in my room,” Nkemdiche said. “The hotel was under my name. Nobody wanted to take the fall. It had to go under my name. It just happened to play out like that.”
The sheer hilariousness of Nkemdiche being unable to find a Cris Carter-style fall guy for the weed or the window aside, Tunsil now has some explaining to do.
Asked Thursday about his Ole Miss teammate, Tunsil offered a favorable review.
“A lot of people don’t know about Rob, man,” Tunsil said. “He’s a great guy, a humble guy. He had a little few off-the-field incidents, but you know, . . . you have little hiccups.”
Of course, if you’re drunk enough to fall out of a fourth-floor window, hiccups are probably to be expected.
Tunsil had his own issues at Ole Miss, stemming from NCAA investigation into improper benefits. But he hadn’t been publicly linked to any substance abuse issues, at least until his teammate threw him headlong under that particular bus.
Now, every time Tunsil goes into an interview with a team at the combine or on private visits, he’s going to be asked if it was his weed that did or did not cause Nkemdiche to defenestrate himself.
Thanks, Rob.