La'El Collins signed by the Cowboys to a 3yr $1.65M fully guaranteed contract with no offset language and the ability (like all UDFAs) to renegotiate in 2 years. Story also says 25 teams contacted him after he got through his interview with the police.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...ially-cleared/
He got shafted by the league, but in the end he got not too shabby a deal.
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How did he get shafted by the league?
All hail the Ruler of the Meadow!
Dunno if he was shafted, but there was a collective rush to judgement on the guy. Given the circumstances I don't blame anyone for making that rush to judgement.
He was shafted out of a few million dollars. He likely would've been a first round choice, but (so far as anyone can tell*) for circumstances beyond his control he was undraftable.
Sure, he got a sweet deal for a UDFA, but he is not making near what he would've. The projected salary for the 16th pick of the draft is over $9M with a $4M signing bonus. I picked this because it's halfway through the round and he was projected to go in the top half. Even if he had lasted until the Patriots were on the clock, he would've gotten $6.9M as pick 32.
I know the rules surrounding the supplemental draft wouldn't allow Collins to enter it, but in the post Rice-Peterson-Hardy NFL, the rules changed. The NFL arbitrarily changed (you could argue bent. Really bent) and they could've done the same wrt the supplemental draft rules. All Goodell had to say was "ok, if he's cleared, he can enter it" and it would've been done. That would've allowed the situation to play itself out without any posturing, threats etc.
*all the information we've seen so far point to him having no involvement.
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Originally Posted by Guiness
Goodell has always changed the rules when it suits him and he's lost in court more than once. This is not new.
Letting someone in because they went undrafted opens a HUGE precendent for which he was brilliant to avoid. Look, I got nothing against Collins but this was nothing more than unfortunate timing and that's how life is.
League didn't do a thing to the guy.
Teams passed on him due to concerns. The CBA spells out how to get into the supplemental draft and he CLEARLY didn't qualify.
I know he didn't qualify, but the landscape has changed pretty significantly. The 'say Hannibal Lector had an eating disorder' comment is no longer true. The Seahawks have said they would not have drafted Frank Clarke if he had charges pending - he got off with a minor fine, but if that hadn't been resolved in time for the draft, what would've happened to him?
I think players should be able to voluntarily withdraw from the draft if there are non-football issue that affect their draft status - and cost them a whole pile of money.
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Sounds like a perfect storm scenario. First off, tragically, two people are no longer with us, including a baby. The timing for Collins is very unfortunate, but it is what it is.
There should be a rule or regulation that is collectively bargained that allows for a player to withdraw, even at a late stage, possibly due to circumstances beyond the individual's control.
First off, if he has any emotional connection to Brittany Mills, he should be allowed to be a human being and grieve her loss. But also, if he becomes more than just a person of interest to the authorities, then he would have more than just football to worry about. Let him take a step back, get things sorted out, while protecting his draft stock and earning power by letting him go back in the draft the next year.
If he can't because it turns out he was directly involved, then good for the league and the team that may have mistakenly drafted him. If he wasn't at all involved, then he gets another shot at the guaranteed money he will now miss out on. The only down-side is having to sit out.
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." -Daniel Patrick Moynihan
HOFer
he did it to himself, he had almost a whole week before the draft to go talk to the police and clear his name, he instead chose to dodge the cops like he had something to hide
If the police wanted to talk to me about a murder investigation of a pregnant woman I used to date, I'd take my sweet damn time, get my ducks in a row and head down with a lawyer too! I can't say I blame him at all for the way he handled it.
Something to hide or no, you want to make sure you handle that situation right, and rushing down to sit in an interview room in Baton Rouge with some homicide detectives seems fraught with disaster.
Last edited by Guiness; 05-08-2015 at 11:11 AM.
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There is no guarantee that conversation is going to go well. Delay to be sure is pretty reasonable.
Remember, he needs not to just talk to them to salvage the draft situation, he needs to come out close to scot-free. Police don't normally prioritize publicly ruling persons of interest out of the woods.
Bud Adams told me the franchise he admired the most was the Kansas City Chiefs. Then he asked for more hookers and blow.
He could have gone the supplemental draft route...
What is the deadline to decide on that? I wonder if they had the chance to buy time and failed or if they were unsure about the investigation.
My bet is they were privately certain about the investigation's results, but the NFL leakers made him radioactive as the draft approached.
Bud Adams told me the franchise he admired the most was the Kansas City Chiefs. Then he asked for more hookers and blow.
The way PFT presented it, he never could've. They quoted the following rule
“No player may elect to bypass a Draft for which he is eligible to apply for selection in a Supplemental Draft,” Article 6, Section 2(c) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement declares."
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Bernie Kosar got around this by delaying his graduation until the summer before his senior year. So yeah, doesn't look like it has changed much.
Bud Adams told me the franchise he admired the most was the Kansas City Chiefs. Then he asked for more hookers and blow.
How did he game that, and why did he want to be in the supplemental instead of the regular draft?
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Thatw as a while ago and I don't recall the why.....the late graduation qualified him I guess. It's all spelled out.
He was graduating early. He needed only a set number of credits and he could schedule the last of them in the summer, I believe. There was much confusion. If you go back to look at mock drafts, Kosar to the Vikings was a popular choice. There was one put on the web just a few days ago, though not for Kosar related reasons. I also vaguely remember he might have been a red-shirt sophomore (three years of school plus possible early enrollment his senior year of high school) and that unusual status might have played into it.
Now the conspiracy theorists (many Vikings fans at the time and a few elsewhere) thought that he and his family received coaching from the Browns on how to arrange this. The theory in Cleveland was that he wanted to play for the home team. Possible he wanted to avoid the Vikings as well, but his true motivation was never reported as far as I know.
In the regular 1985 draft, the Browns traded for the Bills first round pick in 1986, which allowed them to use the Bills first overall pick in the 1985 supplemental draft. (If you use a supplemental pick, you lose that round pick in the next year's draft). Kosar had to declare for the draft AND he had to graduate from school to be eligible as a redshirt sophomore.
So he had a loophole but he also made an announcement before the deadline that he was going to forgo college and try to get drafted by the Browns. He then delayed sending in his paperwork past the April 15th deadline to become eligible for the draft. Everyone threatened to sue (somehow the Oilers got involved). I think Kosar held a trump card though. He could cancel or bomb the summer class and he would not be eligible according to the current NFL criteria. he was not officially declared eligible until he passed that class and graduated.
Due to the controversy, on April 12, commissioner Pete Rozelle extended the April 15 eligibility deadline for Kosar alone (who had not officially filed the paperwork for draft eligibility) and called a hearing that would take place on April 16. The four teams (Buffalo, Cleveland, Houston and Minnesota) involved in the two trades presented their case at the hearing.
On April 23, Rozelle announced that he would leave the decision up to Kosar, but permitted Minnesota to persuade Kosar to enter the regular draft with the condition that they could not negotiate a potential contract with him. This led to an April 25 news conference where Kosar announced that he wanted to go home to Ohio as a member of the Cleveland Browns and that he would forgo the regular NFL Draft and make himself eligible for the supplemental draft. On May 10, Kosar officially announced his intentions for the supplemental draft in a letter to the commissioner. On June 25, Kosar became officially eligible for the supplemental draft when he took his exam finals and the university notified the NFL front office that he had graduated. On July 3, 1985, the Browns selected Kosar and signed him to a five-year contract that same day.
Bud Adams told me the franchise he admired the most was the Kansas City Chiefs. Then he asked for more hookers and blow.
He asked the league if he could go in the supplemental draft and was told no.
From everything I've read it doesn't appear he is a suspect in this case so I don't know what the issue is here.
Pugger, I believe that clubs were worried that person of interest would turn into something worse.He asked the league if he could go in the supplemental draft and was told no.
From everything I've read it doesn't appear he is a suspect in this case so I don't know what the issue is here.
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." -Daniel Patrick Moynihan
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