If you’re on the verge of becoming a NFL player, this is not the the breaking news you want released about you on draft day. University of Colorado defensive back Jimmy Smith admitted to failing multiple drug tests while in college during the interview phase of the NFL combine. Per our friends at Pro Football Talk:
Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Smith flunked three drug tests at Colorado, and he told at least one club that one of the three was for misusing codeine.
Codeine may be a particular red flag for NFL teams right now.
The Raiders want to trade up into the first round and were once thought to be interested in moving up for Smith, but the latest reports out of the Bay Area indicate that the Raiders aren’t going to take a chance on a guy with a codeine issue so soon after the JaMarcus Russell debacle.
Smith’s character problems (which also reportedly include issues with alcohol, getting women pregnant and an arrest for assault) are so voluminous that a survey of 24 personnel executives found 11 of them wouldn’t even take him in the second round, let alone the first.
And to think, Florida defensive back Janoris Jenkins got kicked off the team for marijuana only.