Poorly timed bong video costs NFL prospect millions

Tunsil claims his account was hacked.
 By 
Brian Koerber
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

There's bad timing, then there's really bad timing.

Shortly before the this year's NFL Draft someone tweeted a video that appeared to show former Ole Miss offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, who was widely considered one of the best prospects in this year's draft, smoking something from a gas mask bong. He then dropped to the 13th pick by the Miami Dolphins on Thursday, a move that cost Tunsil maybe as much as $10 million. 


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The tweet was quickly deleted and Tunsil claims that his account was hacked. His account was also deleted, but is now back up.  

In the clip, Tunsil can be seen taking a hit, taking off the mask, and coughing as he says, "hey." He did not clear the chamber. Weed may be legal in some form in 24 states, but the NFL surely doesn't want anyone to know that any of its players toke up.

According to Deadpsin, someone has been trying to sell the clip "for weeks," however the publication decided to skip out on the purchase.

To make matters worse, someone then posted alleged screenshots of texts to Tunsil's Instagram account where Tunsil allegedly asks Ole Miss assistant athletic director John Miller for money in order to pay his mother's bills. His Instagram account was later deleted.

During an NFL press conference, Tunsil claimed that his phone was "hacked." 

"Somebody hacked into my account man. You know, I made that mistake several years ago and somehow somebody got into my photos and hacked my Twitter account. And apparently somebody's hacked my Instagram account," Tunsil said during the press conference. 

Tunsil says that he doesn't know who hacked his account, and in an interview with ESPN, he says that he does not run his social accounts. 

When reporters pushed Tunsil in the press conference in Chicago about the money exchange posted to his Instagram, he admitted accepting money

"I made a mistake. That happened," Tunsil said. 

The press conference was abruptly ended when a woman came from behind the curtain and ushered Tunsil off stage.

"He's got no more comments, sorry. Thank you guys so much. He hasn't seen anything, this all happened whole he was up here," the woman said as she lead Tunsil off stage.

Ole Miss later released a statement saying it was aware of the issue.

“The university is aware of the reports from the NFL Draft regarding Laremy Tunsil and potential NCAA violations during his time at Ole Miss. Like we do whenever an allegation is brought to our attention or a potential violation is self-discovered, we will aggressively investigate and fully cooperate with the NCAA and the SEC.”

All of it made for an incredibly bizarre night for Tunsil. And while the alleged video may have been not been as big a deal if, let's say, Colorado were drafting him, it just goes to show that timing can cost millions when it comes to the NFL Draft.

Additional reporting by Brian De Los Santos.

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Topics Cannabis

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Brian Koerber

Brian was the Culture Editor and has been working at Mashable on the web culture desk since 2014.

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