APRIL 13: NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport confirms the “general sentiment” around the NFL is that the latest Bain reporting will not impact his draft stock.
APRIL 12: Just 11 days from away from the potential start of his NFL career, Miami (Fla.) defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. is facing some controversy that has potential to hurt his draft status. Oliver Connolly of The Read Optional broke the story today that, in 2024, Bain was “cited for careless driving” in an accident that left a young woman in a coma for three months before her eventual passing.
During his sophomore season, Bain reportedly was driving at 4am with four passengers in his car. The victim was a 22-year-old female college student from Georgia visiting Miami over spring break — a statement from the victim’s family in response to Connolly’s request for comment expressed that they “are not seeking public attention” at this time, so the victim will remain unnamed here, though her name is available at the source link.
According to police crash records (via Armando Salguero of OutKick), Bain’s vehicle struck another car before then colliding with the “concrete barriers on both sides of the highway.” The victim “suffered incapacitating injuries and was rushed to the Ryder Trauma Center.” Comatose, she failed to regain consciousness before dying a little under three months later. A second passenger also sustained injuries from the crash and ended up hospitalized. The police report for the crash lists that Bain “operated his vehicle in a careless or negligent manner” but that his condition was “apparently normal.” The report is marked to show that there was no suspected use of drugs or alcohol and that no tests to determine such use were performed at the time.
The victim’s family created a GoFundMe page to help with “the financial strain” put on the victim’s father, who missed a significant amount of time at work to be by his daughter’s side. Per Connolly, “no finding of criminal liability” was made in connection with the crash or the victim’s death, and “the careless driving charge against Bain was dismissed by a court approximately two weeks before” the victim’s passing. According to Trey Wallace, also at OutKick, the charge was dismissed because of a “defective citation” after Bain entered a not guilty plea.
At the time of this writing, Bain is viewed as one of a group of three pass rushers seen as the consensus top prospects at the position, including Ohio State’s Arvell Reese and Texas Tech’s David Bailey. Draft projections have him mostly going in the top 10 picks of the 2026 NFL Draft, and certainly not lasting into the teens if he is still on the board at No. 11 overall.
Connolly’s story presents quotes from multiple team executives and other sources claiming they “feel like (Bain was) not transparent” with them or that they “are concerned about multiple incidents.” Wallace’s report contains more information on a second careless driving citation that occurred in October 2025, though this case was also dismissed because of a defective citation. Connolly even draws parallels to the historic slide of offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, who was projected by some to be the No. 1 pick in 2016 but ended up falling to 13th overall after videos were leaked minutes before the draft showing him smoking from a bong.
Others in the media don’t seem to be reacting with the same level of concern for Bain’s draft stock. In the wake of Connolly breaking the story, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer added that “teams have been aware of this case for a long, long time” and that “a lawsuit associated with the case…was settled in Miami.” The plaintiff of the settled lawsuit was the driver of the car Bain made contact with before crashing. Jonathan Jones of NFL on CBS claimed that every team, except one, that he had “spoken with…(had) been satisfied with Bain’s explanation” of events and consider “the matter handled.” In addition to the victim’s family’s request that their privacy be honored, their response to Connolly’s request for comment called her passing “the result of a tragic accident” and “(wished) Mr. Bain the best as he continues his life and career.”
It’s difficult to say at this point whether or not this information, which is seemingly new to the media but known by the teams in range to draft Bain, will affect his draft stock. Breer and Jones’ comments seem to indicate that, if this issue were going to hurt his draft position, it would have done so already. While the loss of life of the victim is tragic, there doesn’t appear to be any lingering ill will following Bain from the family most affected by it. It’s worth keeping an eye out, though, to see if any teams within range of Bain decide to take him off their board.
2024 huh. Has he done anything recently?
Seems like a weird thing to bring up 11 days away from the draft. Something that happened over a year ago and
“the careless driving charge against Bain was dismissed by a court approximately two weeks before” the victim’s passing.”
“ the victim’s family’s request that their privacy be honored, their statement called her passing “the result of a tragic accident” and “(wished) Mr. Bain the best as he continues his life and career.”
Cuz they write up something.
I’ll assume that NFL teams have done their due diligence and this may be a way to lower his stock. It’s business. Ethics be damned, especially in Miami.
Careless driving probably improves your draft stock if the Chiefs scout you. 🙂
They aren’t drafting him.
It makes sense to me. Could be a non-concern, but if some reporter just found out, it makes to report on it, even if it’s nothing that will affect his stock. They report on everything with these guys.
@droppedballfour. Wondering if a team leaked it to get him to drop. Especially if your 7-10.
That’s a good theory @Rexhudler86. With all the money involved it wouldn’t shock me if one of the agents for another prospect leaked it from their own fact finding missions on competition, knowing it might boost their own guy.
@technically. Yeah it sounds like it was sealed up. Not sure if they settled and did a NDA. My guess is it was from a combine interview. They do say some wild stuff.
It is still newsworthy. I had never heard the story.
Noteworthy, not newsworthy.
Howie, you know what to do.
Crazy. Doesn’t sound like it’ll cause him to drop though.
The biggest concern is no doubt his short arms.
What defines a ‘defective citation’?
Curious because he’s recieved two of those, news report noted October 2025 as the recent.
$$’s
The officer probably made a mistake writing the ticket. Jurisdiction could be wrong, or incident location, the statute, or anything else important on the summons. That’s how it appears to me.
Thanks, I’ve only gotten 2 or 3 in my 60 years of driving / riding and none were ever rescinded. Just not that lucky
Because it leads to character issues. He could be innocent of anything criminal, but still have made poor decisions that led to somebody passing away and somebody else being hospitalized.
There have been a lot of incidents with football players thinking they own the world and drive their cars as fast as they want to that wind up in horrific accidents and usually kill or severely injure the people they hit. There’s clearly a culture of this in the NFL.
So, he killed somebody via carelessness and got off on a technicality…
You can’t be sure of that. I’ve heard of police giving out tickets under the assumption that, if you were going slower, this wouldn’t have happened.
Per Connolly, “no finding of criminal liability” was made in connection with the crash or the victim’s death, and “the careless driving charge against Bain was dismissed by a court approximately two weeks before” the victim’s passing. According to Trey Wallace, also at OutKick, the charge was dismissed because of a “defective citation” after Bain entered a not guilty plea.
Or he didn’t do anything wrong
The officer incorrectly cited careless reckless driving which wasn’t the case and it fell under a different charge altogether (if you’re cited for speeding but actually ran a stop sign that makes a ticket defective cause the charge was inaccurate, though you could still face fines for running the stop sign if video evidence exists).
And charges was dropped cause the officer got the situation wrong
A defective citation is a legal ticket that contains technical errors, omissions, or misinformation—such as
wrong names
incorrect vehicle details
missing officer signatures
or inaccurate statute citations—that may cause it to be dismissed. It is technically called a “facially defective” or “invalid” ticket.
Of those inaccurate citations seem most likely since the charges were dropped altogether
If you read up on it, the family and the police were all in agreement that it was an accident. But instead, this dude at Read Optional is stirring the dust up when the victim’s family had already chosen to not pursue further legal action.
There’s no such thing as an accident. Something had to happen for a crash to be caused. One of the parties is at fault. If Bain was cited, he was believed to be at fault. Not sure what a defective citation is, that should never happen in any serious injury accident.
That’s what it sounds like. Lawyered up and probably paid a bunch of hush money. But not at all surprising NFL teams wouldn’t be put off by this, because they aren’t exactly shining beacons of morality.
I’d agree. They may have settled outside of court to protect his NFL income. Quick cash up front to protect long term financial income.
The crash report was available on Twitter/X. Bain was at fault. He may not have been DUI (never evaluated so no one knows), but still at fault. It’s not the end of the world for Bain, If I was a GM it wouldn’t affect him for draft status.
Reckon contract terms might could include a clause to protect a team monetarily if he can’t operate a vehicle with any degree of skill.
Yet does the NFLPA have a whine against such ‘protections’.
He’ll be fine. Any “concern” teams have is just for show. As evidenced by the dozens of NFL players that are arrested every year and nothing is really done about it.
Well this changes things. Now we know he’s either going to be a KC Chief, a Dallas Cowboy, or a Cincinnati Bengal.
I would rather my team not draft this guy.
Obviously won’t impact him. Jalen Carter’s actions were a lot worse and he is treated as a god. People in the USA in general are awful and care nothing about others, enjoy killing innocent people of color, and enjoy nothing more than violence., so why would this be any different ?
As long as the Browns don’t draft him….I hope he helps the family who lost their daughter recoup financially….. that would go a long ways in showing remorse