Lawrence Timmons

When the Miami Dolphins couldn’t find linebacker Lawrence Timmons after curfew Saturday night before their road game against the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday, they were worried. So worried, it seems, that they actually filed a missing persons report with multiple Southern California police departments. TMZ has more details:

When the team checked to make sure the players were in their rooms by curfew, Timmons was not there. 

Our sources say the team scrambled to find him — calling family and close friends before ultimately filing a missing persons report with local law enforcement.

The good news … cops found Timmons at LAX early Sunday morning in a boarding area in an effort to get to Pennsylvania. A team rep met Timmons at the airport and left with him. 

So, why Pennsylvania? We’re told Timmons had spoken with his baby mama who lives there and had told her he missed the baby and wanted to visit. He was serious about visiting her.

Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald tweeted that the TMZ story is accurate, and the team filed that report with multiple police departments:

ESPN’s Adam Schefter writes that Timmons is scheduled to be evaluated by team doctors Monday, and that a source said “No one has ever seen anything like it”:

After dealing with what one source described as “a personal matter” this weekend, Miami Dolphins linebacker Lawrence Timmons is scheduled to meet Monday with doctors to try to figure out what is wrong, per sources.

One source said Timmons is “doing much better [Monday] and wants to resume playing immediately” with the hope that he will practice this week. But first come the doctor visits.

The Dolphins are unsure what the issue is with Timmons, but one league source said he does not believe it is the early onset of CTE. “No one has ever seen anything like it,” one source said.

…Following the Dolphins’ 19-17 victory over the Chargers, coach Adam Gase would only say that Timmons didn’t play Sunday due to a coach’s decision.

“I need to figure some things out before I talk about this,” he said.

Even Timmons’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, was tight-lipped, as per the Sun-Sentinel:

When asked whether Timmons would play next week for the Dolphins, his agent Drew Rosenhaus told Channel 7’s Steve Shapiro, “I don’t know.”

“It’s a private matter,’’ Rosenhaus said on the Sunday night show he routinely does with Shapiro. “I’d love to be able to shed some light on it, but I’m not. It’s of a personal nature of Lawrence. When he gets back to Miami and we get together and converse with the Dolphins, then we’ll have a joint statement.”

Meanwhile, Jackson tweeted that Timmons’ teammates have been supportive, even if they’re not sure what’s going on either:

Timmons is 31, and in his 11th NFL season. The Pittsburgh Steelers chose him in the  first round of the 2007 NFL draft out of Florida State, and he played in Pittsburgh from that year through 2016 before signing a two-year, $12 million deal with the Dolphins this offseason. He was one of their key additions, and looked to play a crucial role in their linebacking corps this season before this story turned up. He also was one of the Dolphins’ players who chipped in to help a Florida high school football team stranded in Las Vegas in the wake of Hurricane Irma, donating towards their transportation and lodging costs earlier this week. We’ll see what further developments there are here, but this sure looks like one of the most bizarre NFL stories in a while.

[TMZ; photo from the Sun-Sentinel]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.