The Miami Dolphins had scheduled a news conference for rookie draft pick Laremy Tunsil out of Ole Miss but had to cancel the event Friday. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter and others, the reason given was that Tunsil had “an allergic reaction,” and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network noted that he was currently with team doctors.
If this were almost any other rookie we’d likely make nothing of this report.
But Tunsil isn’t just any other prospect about to enter the NFL, and this is coming on the heels of two alarming developments that hit social media on Thursday.
The first development came by way of a hacked Twitter account. Tunsil’s account tweeted out a video of him taking a hit out of a gas mask bong. He later admitted it was him and said it was from two years ago.
The second development will likely linger, as Ole Miss has started investigating text messages that were leaked via Tunsil’s Instagram account. In them, Tunsil says he took money from assistant athletic director for football operations John Miller for rent.
There is also a pending lawsuit from Tunsil’s step-father, who claims Tunsil assaulted him last summer.
And now he’s not showing up to his first press conference after being drafted No. 13 overall by the Dolphins because of an allergic reaction.
Okay, so maybe he really does have an allergic reaction to something, and we wish him good health. But it’s not hard to imagine the team simply doesn’t want to deal with the media pelting the young man with endless questions about his off-field issues.