Just minutes before the National Football League Draft began, the
powerful tackle from the University of Mississippi was shown wearing
a gas mask and smoking something through a bong.
The video was quickly deleted and Tunsil suspended his Twitter
account.
Tunsil later said his account had been hacked, but the damage was
done and teams seemed to shy away from the player who had been
expected to go near the very top of the draft.
"It was a mistake. It happened years ago," Tunsil, who did not fail
a drug test at Mississippi, told the NFL Network about the video.
"Someone hacked my Twitter account."
Tunsil said he found out about the video just before the start of
the draft.
"I did not know about it at all, I found out about it when I got to
the Green Room," Tunsil said. "I don't know who it was, I ain't
going to point any fingers or name any names."
Tunsil has been involved in other off-field controversies, most
recently when his stepfather sued him this week claiming the player
attacked him physically and defamed him. Tunsil claimed he was only
protecting his mother.
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Tunsil, who may have lost millions of dollars because rookie
salaries are based on draft position, vowed to prove himself on the
gridiron.
"It's a crazy world, things happen for a reason. I'm glad to be in
Miami," Tunsil said.
"I'm going to show everyone what kind of person I am. I'm going to
give it everything I got."
Two offensive tackles were taken ahead of Tunsil, Notre Dame's
Ronnie Stanley with the sixth pick by the Baltimore Ravens, and
Michigan State's Jack Conklin, taken eighth by the Tennessee Titans.
(Writing by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Andrew Both)
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