Alabama Football: Did Friday’s Altercation Cost Reuben Foster Big Bucks?
By Ronald Evans
Alabama Football’s former star Reuben Foster is within weeks of becoming a financially secure young man. Is he throwing money away even before it happens.?
Everyone who follows Alabama football and almost any SEC football fan, know of Reuben’s prodigious talent. Beast and freak are the words used most often to describe him.
Even with some questions about his recently repaired shoulder, Reuben has been consistently projected as a high first-round NFL pick.
He could not workout at this week’s NFL combine but attended to take care of non-physical business. Depending upon the full story as yet unknown, his taking care of business did not go well.
Reuben and every other player at the Combine was scheduled for an MRI on Friday. Per CBSSports.com:
"The reports about Foster’s incident began emerging Friday night, when ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Foster was “sent home” from the combine for getting into a “heated argument with a hospital worker.” Yahoo’s Charles Robinson added that Foster “felt mistreated” and that the altercation did not get physical.On Saturday, The Monday Morning Quarterback’s Robert Klemko reported that Foster tried to use the “Do you know who I am?” card when he was stuck in a long line, which is when the argument arose."
Foster responded Saturday on Instagram that nothing of any consequence occurred.
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Whatever happened, Foster was sent home from the combine and thereby missed out on scheduled individual meetings with teams. Those meetings will happen later, probably as soon as Alabama’s Pro Day on March 8th.
There are a couple of ways to look at this and the most likely result is Foster’s draft status will go unchanged. But you also have to ask what NFL General Managers will make of Foster’s apparent lack of composure under minimal stress.
It can be argued that gifted players are insulated from this kind of situation throughout their college careers. By no means does Nick Saban coddle any of them, but considerable attention is given to keeping superstars away from trouble.
The NFL expects players to behave professionally without the need of a regular handler. Even more importantly the NFL seeks players who respond to stress, any stress, appropriately. Outcomes of games and championships can be determined by the foolish actions of a too hot-headed player.
Has Reuben given NFL teams a reason to pause, in their decision to allocate their prized first round picks? It is too soon to know.
We do know that anything that gives teams a reason to pause can cost a player BIG BUCKS. Last year, the tweet showing Laremy Tunsil wearing a drug-consuming head mask probably cost Laremy $10 million.
Can a similar loss of money transpire if NFL teams fear Reuben can’t control his emotions? None of us know that answer.
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There is an old southern saying that describes when a man has done something for which there is no remedy, and only a price to be paid. The sanitized version of the phrase is “when a man deposits a certain bodily fluid into whiskey bottle that still contains whiskey.”
Let’s hope NFL executives don’t think Reuben _issed in the whiskey on Friday.
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