In case you missed it, one of the stranger stories to come out of the NFL scouting combine concerned a hotel room that had been reportedly trashed by a duo of college players attending the event. As relayed by Jason Cole of Yahoo.com, no "material damage" like broken furniture had taken place in the room, but "urine and feces [had been] scattered about the bathroom, toothpaste on the mirror and garbage strewn about the room." Yikes.
One would think that players would be on their best behavior while attending the biggest job interview of their football careers, but it appears that not everybody shared that sentiment. Initially, Jeff Foster, the president of the National Football Scouting organization who runs the combine, declined to identify the two responsible for the feces-fest, but now, ESPN mega-insider Adam Schefter has outed the duo as Clemson WR DeAndre Hopkins and Rutgers WR Mark Harrison.
A trashed hotel room at Indy scouting combine that Yahoo reported on belonged to Clemson WR DeAndre Hopkins and Rutgers WR Mark Harrison.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 18, 2013
The story hardly ends there, however. Trashing a hotel room is widely considered to be a bad move, and this report could easily alter either player's draft stock for the worse. Consequently, both player's camps have already begun denying any responsibility.
Following @adamschefter's report on DeAndre Hopkins/Mark Harrison trashing hotel room at combine, a GM told me that (CONT)
— Alex Marvez (@alexmarvez) April 18, 2013
he was told Hopkins had left the room several hours before it was destroyed. Will be curious to see how this unfolds
— Alex Marvez (@alexmarvez) April 18, 2013
NFL sources said they are convinced that Rutgers wide receiver Mark Harrison is not responsible for the trashed hotel room.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 18, 2013
Heard conflicting stories on whether one or both guys were involved in rock-starring that hotel room, meaning it depends on who you talk to.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) April 18, 2013
Obviously, we are unlikely to know the truth of the matter anytime soon. The Bengals are a team that could be in the market for wide receiver help early in the draft, so this news is probably very interesting to Mike Brown and Marvin Lewis (who I would have to believe are firmly in the "smearing poop at a job interview is bad" camp). Until the guilty party fesses up, however, both players will ultimately be regarded with suspicion come draft day.
In the meantime, at least one good thing has come out of this whole affair: it's been a source of comedy gold for anyone with a twitter account.
2receivers1room
— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) April 18, 2013
Josh Norris, everybody. Bravo.