I dunno what is going on in Vegas.
The Raiders recently released the defensive tackle Christian Wilkins. This was what we in the business call “a surprise”. 2 years ago Wilkins was one of the most highly sout after free agents. A former standout defensive tackle in Clemson and then in Miami, Wilkins was going to command a big contract in an era where the big middle men are getting paid. You can actually see this in action during the infamous Giants “Hard Knocks”, if you watched the whole show instead of just laughing at the clips of Schoen making mistakes about Saquon. One of my favorite segments of that show was when they detailed their free agency plan. Wilkins was on the board. Dex, his former teammate at Clemson, publicly vouched for him. The show explained that the Giants had two plans: go after Wilkins, or use the money to sign multiple offensive linemen instead, such and Runyan and Elumenor. Schoen went for the linemen. Even before any of this recent drama unfolded, I think Schoen made the correct choice. The haters won’t admit it, but that was a Schoen W.
The Raiders got him for a hefty bag. A year later and the Raiders released him. The reasons why are…somewhat unclear, and every report makes it seem weirder.
Wilkins was dealing with a foot injury (Jones Fracture) since October. He was on the PUP list and was reportedly refusing a surgery that the team wanted him to have. Not long before Wilkins was cut, a video was released of him dancing to the Backstreet Boys in the weight room. A lot was made of this video in the aftermath but frankly it seems overdone to me. He’s not doing anything fancy. He’s not jumping, he’s not busting hard moves. Depending on his rehab it seems…okay. Maybe he shouldn’t be doing that but I’m not a doctor so I can’t say either way but I don’t see anything offensive.
What came out after the dancing thing seems to be the real problem. It has been reported that Wilkins got in trouble for kissing a fellow player on the head.
I have to admit, my first reaction to this was….really? That’s it? A peck on the noggin? You can’t kiss the homies? This player supposedly reported Wilkins to Raiders HR. Then, a few minutes passed, and I thought to myself: you know, in pretty much every workplace, kissing a co-worker on the forehead would be grounds for harassment and termination. I certainly would have gotten in trouble if I went to a coworker and gave their forehead a smooch. But then, a few more minutes passed, and I was confused again.
Locker rooms are not normal workplaces. Pretty much everything I’ve read makes them out to be immature dens of sin, lands of professional horseplay and the pinnacle of the “boys will be boys” mindset. Everyone sees each other naked all the time. Players slap ass all the time. If you read books by players they go into the types of pranks these guys all play on each other. I can only imagine the kinds of jokes that get said behind those doors. In a world like this…how does a little homie kiss get a guy with a massive contract cut? How…wet…was this kiss? Was it even a kiss, or is this a cover story?
The only conclusion I can come to is that this was a pattern of weird behavior that boiled over and most of what actually got him cut is stuff we aren’t hearing about. Maybe the Raiders want to keep much of it private to protect Wilkins to some degree even if they have to release him. There might be some legal reasons why we aren’t getting more information. Raiders player Adam Butler made an extremely suspicious comment during his presser today, telling people to seek help no matter your struggle. What the hell is going on with Wilkins? Is he okay? Footage was sent around from his college days of him just openly grabbing some dick and balls on a player during a game. I wonder if Wilkins just has a history of going too far with people and making them uncomfortable, even in a place as loose as a football locker room. I dunno what’s going on. Nobody except those in the room seem to know. I can’t remember a situation like this.
If he signs with the Browns that might tell us something
