Dalvin Cook has long been a projected NFL Draft first round pick, but has seen his stock plummet, possibly in part to a false rumor going around.
In just one day, the 2017 NFL Draft will get underway in Philadelphia with 32 college athletes getting the chance to become first round picks in professional football. For the longest time, former Florida State running back Dalvin Cook was going to be one of those players without a doubt.
In recent weeks, however, Cook has seen his stock start to go down in part because of what some teams saw as a questionable combine last month and the continuing subject of several off-field issues he had while in Tallahassee, including being acquitted on a charge of domestic violence outside a local bar.
Now, it appears that some of the bad news about Cook heading into the NFL Draft is a result of a personal enemy. A recent article in Sports Illustrated, which detailed Cook’s tough upbringing in Miami as well as his body of work both on and off the field, delivered this interesting nugget from Tony Villani, who runs the training facility in Boca Raton, where Cook has been working out:
"” … After the Senior Bowl (Villani) started getting calls from scouts and coaches suggesting the opposite. He was told that an agent had started a rumor at the all-star game: Cook was showing up to workouts late—if he came at all—that he’d arrived with alcohol on his breath on occasion, and with unsavory characters from the neighborhood in tow.“I told these guys, You know me, you know I’m not going to lie to you… you’ve got it wrong,” Villani says. “It got to the point where I felt I had to go to Dalvin’s agent and tell him about what people were saying.”"
The scariest part is that the article is that several NFL scouts from teams confirmed that this man, known as a “runner” for an agent, was going around spreading these rumors. Villani said he cut off ties to the runner after being stiffed on a bill and thinks the man may be attempting to hurt Cook since he signed with a different agent.
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There is no doubt that Cook has had past issues, but if someone is actually making up lies then that person needs to have nothing to do with the NFL Draft ever again.