Sources: LB Foster sent home from combine
Former Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster, a potential top-10 pick in next month’s NFL draft, was sent home from the Indianapolis scouting combine for a “heated altercation” he got into Friday with a hospital worker, according to multiple sources.
All one NFL spokesman would say was that Foster was being sent home for “personal reasons.” He did not want to comment further.
Foster, the top-graded inside linebacker for many teams, was scheduled to go through team interviews Friday night and testing Saturday, none of which will happen now, according to sources. Foster was scheduled to fly home to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Saturday.
NFL officials are reviewing the procedures that contributed to the incident to see if they can make improvements and ensure it doesn’t happen again, per league sources.
Another league source said there was a “miscommunication” that allowed the argument between Foster and a hospital worker to escalate.
Foster had been waiting for an extended period for what the NFL calls his “pre-exam,” when he grew increasingly impatient and began questioning a hospital worker.
The hospital worker did not take kindly to Foster’s words, and eventually the two were face-to-face, in a heated exchange.
Other players were there at the time, and the NFL is questioning them to get a full account of events.
But one league source said the league has to review the procedures and create better communication so that players understand what is happening and why there are delays.
According to AL.com, Foster said “nothing happened” in a live Instagram video posted Saturday.
“Y’all, stop asking me what happened, for real,” Foster said in the video, according to AL.com. “Nothing happened.”
Foster said teammates were with him at the time of the incident and could verify what happened.
“I’m chilling with my people right now,” Foster said in the video. “My agent backs me. I’m staying low. When I get my chance, I’m taking advantage of it. I’m telling you. That’s all I know.”
When asked about Foster on Saturday, his former teammate Jonathan Allen said he didn’t know what had happened but called the situation “surprising” and “disappointing.”
Tim Williams, a defensive end who was at the Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital at the same time, said he was in a different group and couldn’t say exactly what happened.
“We were all waiting for our names to be called. He was with the linebackers and I was with all of the D-line,” Williams said. “I was in a different room.”
Foster is a potential top-10 pick, and one team executive said last night that he thought “Foster was a legitimate top-three pick” coming into the combine.
Foster is recovering from recent rotator cuff surgery in his right shoulder and was not scheduled to participate in drills at the combine. In his video chat, Foster said he’d be out of the sling in a week.
“Everything ain’t perfect,” he said. “I’m good. I just have to think. I just had to sit back and relax and think about what I really want.”
Foster’s projected recovery timetable was about four months, a source told ESPN’s Adam Caplan, which is well ahead of the start of training camps in July.
Foster was Alabama’s leading tackler last season and a unanimous first-team All-American. He also won the Butkus Award, given to the nation’s best linebacker.
Information from ESPN’s Jeff Legwold and The Associated Press was used in this report.
