Character in Question

As many college football stars watched their dreams come true recently, on the weekend of the annual NFL draft, former LSU offensive lineman and first round hopeful La’el Collins watched from home in New Orleans only to hear his name not called for seven rounds over the span of three days.

How is this possible when some predicted Collins would be drafted as high as fifteenth overall?

It’s likely because only a few days before the draft Collins’ ex-girlfriend, who was pregnant, was murdered in her Louisiana apartment. Collins was not a suspect in the crime at the time of the draft he was in the state at the time of the murder and was someone police wanted to question. It was also unclear whether or not Collins was the father of the child the woman was carrying.

As soon this story came out, many teams began to become extremely worry some about Collins and his draft stock began to drastically drop.

Collins was in Chicago, for the draft, at the time police called him in for questioning. He immediately flew back to New Orleans to try to clear his name. After he talked to the police, the police stated that Collins had a clear alibi.

Collins explained to police that he and his family were in New Orleans the night of the murder and were attending a New Orleans Pelicans basketball game. Collins let police go through a full search of his phone and he even showed the police his tickets to the game. It turned out the murder occurred a little over an hour away from New Orleans. The police later released a statement that stated that Collins was never even a suspect. Lastly, Collins took a paternity test to see if he was the father of the child and it came back negative.

However, this would all end up being too late because Collins wasn’t even drafted.  Luckily for Collins, when it became clear he was not connected with the murder many NFL teams flocked to him to try to sign him to a contract and he ended up signing with the Dallas Cowboys.  While he will play in the NFL next year, Collins’draft drop will cost him potentially millions of dollars in compensation – the difference between a first-round contract and an undrafted free agent’s contract.

However, this story about La’el Collins helps show how the NFL’s mentality toward players has changed. In the past, talent would often trump charcter issues.

What may have changed the NFL’s mind is the story of all-pro tight Aaron Hernandez, formerly of the New England Patriots. Many teams knew of Hernandez’s troubled past before the draft. The Patriots took a chance on him. Hernandez is now serving a life sentence without parole on a murder conviction.

This incident helped prove the point that it is very important to do research on potential draft prospects, and consider character as well as talent.  NFL teams want to make sure the future stars will not do anything to compromise their team or the image of the league.

Clearly, future drafts will be about more than talent alone.