Andrew Buller-Russ
The 2023 NFL Draft weekend in Kansas City, Missouri was a major success. We saw teams like the Philadelphia Eagles get several draft steals over the three-day event. Unfortunately, the Eagles weren’t the only ones who committed robbery.
The only problem is, one ‘theft’ was legal, and the other, was not.
According to the Los Angeles Times, two USC journalism students who were on hand, covering the NFL Draft actually got arrested while trying to board a plane back to California.
The reason? You already know. Theft.
These two students were charged with stealing over $1,000 worth of NFL Draft jerseys, which were intended to go to the players selected in the draft instead. The students, Eric Lambkins II and Jude Ocanas were working the draft for a company called Annenberg Media, which has direct ties to the USC journalism program.
Video footage caught the two students red-handed, entering forbidden areas they weren’t granted access to at 1:20 AM on Friday morning. A total of three jerseys are believed to have been stolen. One belonged to the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, and Minnesota Vikings. They each had the No. 1 on the jersey, with no player name attached on the back nameplate.
The USC Annenberg School paid for the two students to travel and cover the draft. Yet, we get the feeling the students are on their own when dealing with the legal charges stemming from their poor decisions.
NFL jerseys cost, on average, $130 brand new. But that’s with a player’s name attached. A jersey with no name? Who would want it? Obviously, these two would have been better off shopping the list of best-selling jerseys instead of trying to lift them for a five-finger discount.
Related: Top 25 remaining NFL free agents and ideal landing spots
