Opinion: Feeling Bad for Laremy Tunsil

The first night of the 2016 NFL Draft was supposed to be the best few hours in the life of offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil. It is now an evening Tunsil will never forget for different reasons.

Full disclosure: I’ve never met National Football League offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil. I’ve never spoken with the 21-year-old. What I knew about Tunsil as of the morning of April 28, 2016, other than what I had seen of his play, was that he was a guaranteed top-ten NFL Draft pick. The only reason websites such as WalterFootball.com had Tunsil falling down to sixth overall was because the San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars had needs bigger than offensive line.

That all changed when Tunsil’s social media accounts were attacked right as Tunsil was entering the green room to begin what was supposed to be the best night of his young life.

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You’re either not a football fan or you decided to ignore all NFL Draft coverage if you still have somehow not seen the video of Tunsil wearing a gas mask that happened to be attached to a bong. Both NFL Network and ESPN posted pictures and also the video of the young man, now confirmed to be Tunsil (story courtesy of Ian O’Connor of ESPN.com), smoking what has to be assumed to be marijuana.

It was a moment of television unlike any other in NFL Draft history.

One didn’t have to be a brilliant investigator to immediately realize that Tunsil was not responsible for uploading that video, and also that Tunsil probably had not been recorded on April 28. We later learned that the Tunsil video could have been shot when the offensive lineman was in high school (via Larry Brown of LarryBrownSports.com).

The damage was done well before Tunsil’s personal team could begin even preparing countermeasures. It was reported on-air by both ESPN and NFL Network that the Baltimore Ravens removed Tunsil from the team’s draft board entirely. Tunsil fell out of the top-five, and he was available when the New York Giants, a team that could use a player of Tunsil’s athletic skills, were called at pick No. 10.

The Giants passed.

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Tunsil was not left in the green room up until the end of the first round, as the Miami Dolphins chose to give him a chance and take the tackle out of Ole Miss three spots after the Giants. For a handful of minutes, Tunsil had to believe that his nightmare was coming to an end.

Then his Instagram account was allegedly hacked.

The apparent text messages broadcast to the world via Tunsil’s Instagram account seemed to show that Tunsil received money from at least one of his college coaches, a direct violation of NCAA rules. Tunsil, as one would expect, was asked about this by beat reporters after he was drafted by the Dolphins.

As best we can tell, Tunsil told the truth.

What was assumed when the now-infamous video surfaced on Tunsil’s Twitter page was confirmed via the activities of his Instagram account. Somebody, for whatever reasons, was trying to sabotage Tunsil’s NFL career before it even began. “What’s the big deal?” a cynic out there may ask. “Tunsil was still drafted, and he is still going to make millions of dollars.”

That’s true, but it doesn’t erase the fact that Tunsil’s finances, his memories of what should have been a special night and his reputation were all negatively affected all because of a couple of social media posts.

Those who would hit out at and/or make fun of Tunsil because of what happened on Thursday night may have hot takes about young people being careful about who is in their inner circles, about how would-be NFL players should handle their social media presences and about the reality that there can always be a camera recording and that one delete button does not forever erase a video. I have one thing to say to those individuals:

Shut up.

You don’t think, when you are in your teens or your early 20s, that somebody close to you is going to betray you and/or try to ruin your life in the 11th hour of what is supposed to be your finest moment. You don’t assume that something from your past it going to come back to haunt you at the one moment when you cannot possibly defend or explain yourself.

ESPN Senior Writer Ian O’Connor wrote about the Tunsil matter for a piece that was published on the morning of April 29.

"And let’s not forget that he’s a victim of a sinister real-time plot that cost him millions. Tunsil said he has no idea who betrayed him, or how the hacking went down. He has been engaged in a legal dispute (via Chris Low of ESPN) with his stepfather, Lindsey Miller, who was quoted by TMZ denying any role in the incident."

O’Connor continued:

"Here’s hoping that chip inspires Tunsil to become the best player in his draft class. He got screwed Thursday night, as in royally. He didn’t deserve to be humiliated for doing something that a lot of college kids minor in, if not major in, and yet in Chicago he handled this ungodly and unscheduled mess like a grown-up — at least until an official unnecessarily rushed him out of a news conference."

Maybe we will find out that Tunsil is not all that great of a person. Perhaps, as this onion continues to be peeled, we will see that karma won the night and that Tunsil had it coming all along. Only if that happens, though, should anybody not root for Tunsil to succeed in the NFL.

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I feel bad for Tunsil on April 29, as should any reasonable and sane adult.