Having traveled to Chicago this week, LSU guard La’el Collins was set to be one of 27 prospects that would be in attendance at the 2015 draft. Instead, Collins had opted to leave Chicago to return to Louisiana in order to meet with police in an effort to clear his name, reports Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter links).
As we learned yesterday, Louisiana police are looking to question Collins following the shooting death of a pregnant woman last week. The woman, Brittany Mills, is believed by police to be a former girlfriend of Collins, though the LSU offensive lineman isn’t considered a suspect in the case. Jim Boren, the attorney for Collins, told Schefter that he has been in constant contact with the lead detective in the case, and spoke to the district attorney yesterday.
“We took the investigation seriously,” Boren said on Tuesday. “We’ve tried to rule him out as a suspect. We’re going to provide that information to the police, and ultimately [Collins] will sit down and talk to them. But the timing is poor.”
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), Collins had originally intended to speak to police and submit to paternity tests following the draft. However, it’s clear that the situation requires urgent attention, so the first-round prospect will attempt to clear his name in Louisiana rather than walking across the stage to shake Roger Goodell’s hand in Chicago.
Peter King of TheMMQB.com reported today that one team interested in drafting a tackle in the first round was debating whether or not to keep Collins on its board.