Few offseason stories have been as strange, sad and ongoing as that of now Miami Dolphins offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil. His fall from the top 10 of the NFL draft this April has been well documented, but it appears the gory details of his time at Ole Miss aren’t done being leaked.
After seeing pictures of him using a gas mask to assist in smoking pot, seeing screenshots of text messages pointing to illegal payments to Tunsil by a coach at Ole Miss and a really unfortunate delay in his first press conference in Miami due to — we certainly had seen it all.
Then, Tunsil’s strange relationship with his step-father reared its ugly head once again. Now, it is Lindsey Miller, his step-father, going public with allegations of help from those associated with the Ole Miss program in moving his family to Oxford, Miss. when Tunsil became a player for them.
In an exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated, Miller makes the allegations that boosters and even coaches helped to pay the way for a move for Miller, Tunsil’s mother, and Miller’s two other son’s to Oxford.
However, this story isn’t just about it is also about a husband and wife who are estranged with two very different stories. Miller compares what happened to that of the 1990’s sports classic, Blue Chips, while Tunsil’s mother denies it all.
“It’s like that movie Blue Chips with Nick Nolte, with Shaquille O’Neal in it,” Miller says, referring to the 1994 fictional film about corruption in college sports. “It really is.”
The NCAA declined to comment, citing its policy of keeping silent on open cases. But Polingo denies Miller’s allegations, saying she and her estranged husband had enough money saved to move there on their own.
In a statement to SI through a lawyer, she said: “[Miller] continued receiving his pension, child support and military benefits. Why he keeps telling people that Ole Miss promised us something or did something wrong is beyond me, and frankly makes me very angry.”
While the SI report doesn’t include much in the way of concrete proof it certainly adds another log on to the fire of what we already know to be true — something very wrong was happening with the Ole Miss program around 2013 and beyond.
After all, it was a complete shock to see Ole Miss wrap up the No. 8 overall recruiting class in 2013 (which included Tunsil). Many wondered out loud if there was something fishy and as the saying goes “where there is smoke, there is usually fire.”
It now appears that the NCAA could be ready to burn down the already on fire Ole Miss football program, but when and not if is the real question at hand.
