- 8 months ago
We dive more into the absurd story behind Christian Wilkins being cut from the Las Vegas Raiders. Was it issues towards his injury or being too playful of a teammate trying to 'playfully' kiss a teammate on the forehead which was later reported to the teams HR? Things don't sit well with Tobin... Is there more behind this story with the way Wilkins is being painted?
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00:00This Christian Wilkins story, I mean, I really don't know what to believe anymore, Leroy.
00:05I got to be honest with you.
00:06Well, everybody's trying to make a – but here's the crazy thing about the whole story is
00:12that what they're talking about as to why they had to make a move has nothing to do with his injury.
00:20Right.
00:21Which is, if you're going to put we had to get rid of him because he didn't rehab right,
00:28I don't want to hear a story about something else.
00:33Because people – well, I think it's what happened is people were like, come on, bro.
00:37That can't be the story.
00:39Right.
00:39That can't be the story.
00:40But the partying and the ankle?
00:43No.
00:44Oh, the kissing the forehead of another teammate.
00:46I think what I mean, Vlad, is when he first – they basically said this was just a disagreement over rehab.
00:51Right, right, right.
00:52Like, that can't be the reason you're dumping a guy after a year.
00:55Now, I understand they didn't – this particular regime didn't sign him.
00:59So –
01:00Yeah.
01:00Like, it was a different GM, different coach.
01:02Pete Carroll's now in charge.
01:04But still, I mean, like, this is one of those things where, like, this isn't the second year you're going into it.
01:10He suffered the injury last year.
01:12There's a little bit of a disagreement on where they're at, but I don't even know now what to believe
01:15because was it the injury or is it that he kissed a teammate on the head
01:19and that teammate went to HR.
01:22That was the thing that was –
01:23HR?
01:23HR?
01:25Hold on.
01:25No.
01:26Wait.
01:26Hold on.
01:27He's right, though.
01:28I'm not lying.
01:28He is right.
01:29I'm not lying.
01:29I know.
01:30Vlad.
01:30No, he is right, though.
01:31I know.
01:32Okay.
01:32But Vlad.
01:33I know, but he's right.
01:35How is he supposed to handle it?
01:37Because you know what?
01:38He could have handled it another way, and it might have been even bad for him.
01:44You're going to be going to London.
01:48So he could – you know, like, yeah.
01:50They could have – it could have been handled a different way.
01:53The fact that he went to HR, I mean, I know it's kind of weak, but he actually handled it the way he should have handled it.
01:59Protocol.
02:00Kershaw Wilkins is ESPN, who was released by the Raiders, kissed a fellow player on the head, and the teammate took offense to it, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
02:08The incident was not the sole reason Wilkins was cut, sources said.
02:12Wilkins had been recovering from a Jones fracture, which he suffered in his left foot last October.
02:16Because Wilkins – of how Wilkins treated the rehab from his injury, the Raiders voided the remainder of the $35.2 million guaranteed on his contract.
02:25He was released with a designation of terminated vested veteran, sources told Schefter.
02:31Wilkins asked the NFL Players Association to file a grievance on his behalf.
02:34The union did so on Thursday.
02:36Last week – last week's incident happened inside a team meeting room, one source told ESPN, that the interactions – the interaction was playful, but the teammate didn't see it that way.
02:48It's not known what fellow player did follow –
02:51So basically he went too far.
02:53It's not known what the fellow player did following the incident.
02:55The complaint was filed to the Raiders' Human Resources Department, which investigated the incident, sources told Adam Schefter.
03:02The Raiders, to a team spokesperson, declined to comment.
03:05So the – if you are explaining the whole – that whole situation with playful, right, then it's coming from a different place.
03:22However, from what I've heard about this injury, the team wanted him to have an additional surgery, and he said he didn't need it.
03:38Well, he got a second opinion.
03:39He got a second opinion.
03:40Yeah, and I think that –
03:41Which is – let me explain something to you.
03:44In a lot of cases, the team doctor pays what is a licensing fee to be the team doctor.
03:57And as players learn this, it doesn't mean that the team doctor isn't a good doctor.
04:04But it doesn't necessarily mean he's the best doctor.
04:09So you always hear, when I was playing, guys going to Stedman or Andrews to have surgeries done by the best.
04:18The great James Andrews, Dr. James Andrews.
04:20Right.
04:22And so he got a second opinion, which you can do.
04:29Like, you're allowed to get a second opinion.
04:32You do not have – I found out the hard way.
04:36And they determined he didn't need surgery or whatever.
04:41So that dispute, right, that situation right there is not grounds to take his money, right?
04:54Like, the HR situation, I don't know, you know, if in the story they say he playfully did it, you know, that, like –
05:12then that means everybody was laughing at the guy, right?
05:15Mm-hmm.
05:18I – let me see if I can tell this.
05:21Yeah, I can tell this.
05:22Because we played with a guy who was gay.
05:25We all thought he was gay.
05:27Mm-hmm.
05:27Right?
05:28His name is Asera Tuala.
05:33Did he out himself already?
05:35Huh?
05:36Did he out himself?
05:36Long time ago.
05:37Okay.
05:38I just want to make sure you're not outing him.
05:39He was from – he was from, like, he was Polynesian or something.
05:43Mm-hmm.
05:43Yeah.
05:44Excellent singer.
05:45He'd probably come out with, like, two or three albums.
05:47So, like – and we would always – he was really good friends with Johnny.
05:54We all hung out, though, right?
05:56We all had – we all thought that he was, but nobody said something because dude was getting sacks.
06:02Mm-hmm.
06:02He came out afterwards and we got, oh, okay, we thought so.
06:06Right?
06:07Like, at no point in time – see, in situations like that, you have to be comfortable with who you are.
06:17It has nothing to do with the other person, right?
06:22And I think a lot of times when guys get in a situation that even would insinuate anything like that, they feel like they have to be extra manly.
06:36Right?
06:38When in actuality, you really don't.
06:40Yeah.
06:41I think one of these things – the thing that I don't like with the Christian Wilkins thing that, like, we all – see, I think it's a couple things.
06:48I think that – I don't know how nationally known Christian Wilkins was.
06:52Yeah, but he's a pest.
06:54Before a story like this.
06:55But, like, now, like, everybody's getting the montages of, like, the grabbing the junk.
06:58Like, these are all things that we knew, but he was always known as a dirty player.
07:01Like, that was – that's something that was common with him.
07:05That he annoyed Josh Allen.
07:07That he'd do some things dirty at the bottom of the pile, things like that.
07:10And now people are just kind of going to this and these conclusions of, oh, Christian Wilkins is this.
07:16We have no idea.
07:17Right.
07:17And we have no idea of that.
07:18And I never – and even with all these stories, I've never even considered it because of, one, the situation that I lived in, in Minnesota.
07:33And, two, he's a nuisance.
07:39He's always been that guy.
07:40Every single team that he played against said, that guy's relentless.
07:45He doesn't stop.
07:46He's annoying.
07:47Yeah, but, yeah.
07:48I get that.
07:49But just don't be grabbing my junk and start kissing me on my forehead.
07:52Yeah, but do we think that he's doing that to, like – we think that he's doing that to teammates all the time?
07:56Like, that's what I'm talking about.
07:57If you have a situation – here's what I'm just saying.
07:58I'm saying this.
07:59What's more likely?
08:01For five years, Christian Wilkins was here.
08:03You just said it.
08:04For five reasons, Christian Wilkins has been here.
08:06He's been nothing but an upstanding teammate.
08:08Everybody said he's the best guy.
08:09Comes to work.
08:10That does everything the right way.
08:11Yes.
08:12Is he a pain in the ass to play?
08:13He is.
08:13Yes.
08:13We know he's the – if you want to say, hey, what are his quirks?
08:17That he loves Hamilton.
08:18Like, okay.
08:20Some people like musicals.
08:21Some people do.
08:22So the stuff –
08:23Wait.
08:24So –
08:24Wait.
08:25Can I just say this?
08:27Vlad is just adding it to the list.
08:28I'm just saying.
08:29Check.
08:30But –
08:30Okay.
08:31However –
08:32So does Seth MacFarlane.
08:33Okay.
08:33But, however, with this –
08:36Like, all the –
08:39It's like pros and cons.
08:40No, but all of a sudden, Christian Wilkins is being made to be like he's some – like,
08:44almost like a predator in his own locker room.
08:46Okay.
08:47Which is – hold on.
08:48Which is on the backing of a team trying to get off of $30 million guaranteed, which
08:56seems like really nasty work by them, Vlad, to paint him in this kind of a picture.
09:00It's nasty work, but here's the only – the only reason why I'm shooting a little
09:04bail.
09:05It's not on the Raiders.
09:07It's on what happened in the locker room.
09:10You're right.
09:11Christian Wilkins, five years.
09:12So the Dolphins staff knows him.
09:15This was his first year in this Raiders organization.
09:18If you're doing things that might have been okay in Miami, but it's not okay in Vegas,
09:23and they've told you, hey, relax.
09:26Like, I'm not – I don't play these type of games.
09:29And you continue it.
09:30That's an issue.
09:31Yeah, but is it really that, or is that what's being painted now because everybody
09:35thinks it's ridiculous?
09:36Right.
09:36What you – Vlad, this is real life right here.
09:39Vlad, that's where my suspicion lies with this because I think the thing is in
09:42social media, we take all this circumstantial stuff.
09:45Right.
09:45That we could add up and make a conclusion about a guy who's been nothing but an
09:49upstanding player and citizen for the NFL.
09:53He has an injury that he doesn't quite agree on, and we've seen a lot of times that
09:58teams can get pretty gnarly with this stuff.
10:00And now we're seeing an unprecedented thing.
10:02They're trying to get off of 30-plus million guaranteed.
10:05That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, and it's also an organization that's
10:08looked down upon as a circus.
10:10What can we do to get people backing us?
10:12Hey, this guy was not somebody we could work around with because, you know,
10:15he's got some behaviors.
10:16It just doesn't sit well with me, Vlad.
10:19It does sound – here, so we're taking the two sides and trying to use what we
10:28know of them to come to a conclusion of how this all went.
10:34We know Christian Wilkins.
10:36We also know the Raiders.
10:38Right?
10:38Now, the one thing that I would say is we don't know the other guy.
10:44But I know this.
10:47I know some people that will push the envelope to make you feel uncomfortable
10:53because you're not secure with who you are.
10:57You understand what I'm saying?
10:58Yeah, but you're incognito.
10:59Right.
10:59And so from that standpoint, like, you have to be more comfortable with who you are
11:08and know that that ain't my thing, dude, or whatever.
11:12Right?
11:13But we get so caught up in trying to be – and, Vlad, this is our people even more
11:24so where you can't just say, hey, man, enough with that foolishness.
11:29You got to let everybody know you ain't down with that.
11:33The only way you do that, if this happens continuously and you're like, hey, man,
11:38stop playing around, stop playing around.
11:40And then after the person continuously does that, they continually do that,
11:44then you're going to have to make a point.
11:46Like, you might have to make a scene.
11:48Might have to throw hands.
11:49You might have to throw hands.
11:50Yeah.
11:50You don't want to throw hands.
11:52You don't want to throw hands because then all of a sudden that's a split in the
11:55locker room.
11:56Or you might get your ass kicked.
11:58Or you might get your ass kicked.
11:59Right?
12:00That's the other reason.
12:02Now, we don't know who the person's kissing the forehead, but guess what?
12:05If it was Max Crosby and Max Crosby said enough, guess what?
12:09He gone.
12:10He gone.
12:11Right.
12:11I don't think Max Crosby knows where HR is located.
12:13Look at him.
12:14He looks like a Sons of Anarchy.
12:14Well, that's the thing.
12:16You might –
12:16I just think that –
12:19You think Max Crosby's ever watched an HR module?
12:22He's probably watching season three of Gemma on Sons of Anarchy.
12:27Max Crosby strikes me as somebody.
12:29If he didn't like something Christian Wilkins was doing, he will throw hands on it.
12:32Now, if it was a rookie that didn't like what he was doing, but that's the thing is I –
12:36We don't know who the player is to know.
12:39And that's the thing is I'm –
12:41Look, I'm not saying anybody's wrong with their conclusions or whatever you're feeling.
12:44That's fine.
12:45But there's just something about me that's like –
12:47Some don't feel right.
12:48Nobody's skeptical about this.
12:49Nobody looks back at this and is just like, oh, wait a minute.
12:52Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
12:53The guys are looking for a way to get off 30 million guaranteed.
12:56You know he's filing a grievance, and you better have a damn good reason.
13:00Let me ask you this.
13:00Vlad, think about it this way.
13:02If all you have is the past history of the two parties, right?
13:08I'm going with Wilkins.
13:09Right.
13:10Right, but guess what, though?
13:11I don't know what happened.
13:13No, we don't know.
13:14We're guessing.
13:15It might be the reason why the Dolphins didn't resign him because they think he plays around too much.
13:20Maybe his playing around might have worked in South Florida.
13:25You go to a different locker room.
13:27Leroy, you know this.
13:28Yeah.
13:28You go to a different locker room.
13:30You've got to adjust to how the locker room is.
13:33Whether it's a bad Raiders organization, you still have to adjust to this new locker room that you're going in, this new organization.
13:40I would also say that could very well be true, but if it is, let me say something to people, right?
13:53100 tackles is 100 tackles, and we live in a world now where we tolerate some people that do some pretty crappy stuff in this world.
14:11Because of the success they have.
14:13Lee, let me ask you a question.
14:13And so I'm saying, grow up, Peter Pan.
14:17Lee, let me ask you a question.
14:17The production is what matters the most.
14:21Would you let another man kiss you on the top of your head?
14:24Let another teammate kiss you on the top of your forehead?
14:28You're thinking about it, so that means no.
14:30No, no, no.
14:31He did have to take a piggyback ride one time.
14:35Yeah.
14:36But I would say this.
14:39Would you allow another man?
14:40It's not a matter of allow.
14:45We ain't like embracing or anything like that.
14:48But if somebody did something and patted me and did that, I would be like, what's up?
14:53But I'm not going.
14:54You know why?
14:55Because I'm comfortable with who the hell I am.
14:57What are you talking about, E-Roy?
14:58Hold on.
14:58Why?
15:00Hey, you know what?
15:00I hate when you try to tell me how I will react.
15:03I'm telling you.
15:04I'm giving you an honest damn answer.
15:06That, you know what?
15:06I'm comfortable with who I am.
15:08But I also think that-
15:09For you to tell me how I will react in a certain situation is crazy.
15:14Stop doing it.
15:15Okay.
15:15I'm more assaulted by that than the scenario that you pick up.
15:20You're telling me how I will react.
15:23The thing is, is no matter what the situation is, I'm comfortable with who I am, right?
15:30Now, it could very well get to a point where you got to say a little something more or do
15:35a little something more, but it would have nothing to do with me trying to defend my masculinity.
15:43It would have to do with, yo, you ain't going to come over here and just do-
15:46But that's the reason.
15:47That's what I'm saying.
15:48So you're answering my question.
15:49It's not about-
15:50You making this about masculinity or all of that.
15:52It's about respect and space.
15:56So the fact of the matter is, you're not going to like somebody just willy-nilly out of the
16:00blue, just kiss you on the top of your head.
16:02You're going to ask that person what's wrong.
16:04And if he continually does that and you continually tell him, hey, enough of that, then what?
16:10Yeah.
16:11Well, listen, Vlad, again, we're still in a position where, look, we could find something
16:15heinous that could have come out.
16:16Because the clissing on the meeting, whether it's a line or not a line, I don't think that
16:23that's a cuttable offense.
16:26I mean, dude, there's football players.
16:30My boy Brett Romberg one time put his deal in a hot dog bun to show to Larry Coker.
16:34Right, but that's what I'm saying.
16:35Like, this is a crazy environment sometimes, right?
16:37Like, we're sitting here-
16:39That's the hardest thing to explain.
16:41The hardest thing to explain is you have a bunch of 300-plus-pound guys who take liberties
16:50of doing stuff to people because it's funny, not because it means anything.
16:58Right.
16:58And if you were to tell these stories to other people, they would take that as-
17:05Well, it's how everybody took Bullygate, right?
17:06Like, a lot of football players are like, eh, you know, this is like, yeah, if you just
17:10put it in a corporate PR world and there's a module to it, they're like, whoa, you know,
17:14it would be, heavens to bits, you know?
17:16They would take it a certain way.
17:18And so I'm leaving-
17:19Look, I'll leave the wiggle room for, hey, maybe Christian Wilkins did something really wrong.
17:23I'm not saying you should, you know, kiss anybody in the head playful if they don't
17:25want to be.
17:26I'm just saying, I'm still stepping back on this and being like, this kind of feels like
17:31they're trying to paint him in a certain way to get off the money.
17:33To get off the money.
17:35I'm just, that's just where I'm at with this thing right now.
17:37I'll give you a perfect example.
17:39And not anything along these lines.
17:42But when we saw John Randall in the casino at one time in Vegas, how did he run up to me?
17:52Like a child, right?
17:55I'm telling you, John Randall has the energy of a two-year-old.
18:02And he practiced that way, he played that way, to the point where I told you, we went
18:09at it every day because he played too damn much, right?
18:13And I said, you know what?
18:15It was never a him problem.
18:17It was a me problem because he brought that energy in everything that he did.
18:22And I had a problem with it.
18:25You see what I'm saying?
18:25So, like, it's the stuff that goes on with the playfulness of these giant individuals.
18:33It's weird and sometimes quite disturbing that a guy that big plays like a child.
18:39So, like, I'm reading this.
18:39So, we'll get to the back of the playfulness of this thing.
18:43So, like, I think we'll do it now.
18:44And then we'll see a little bit more.
18:46So, I'm getting to know the guy who's going on with this stuff.
18:48So, like, if it does look at this stuff what he's doing?
18:49So, I think we'll do it now.
18:51So, what do I do?
18:51I think we'll do it now.
18:52So, like, I'll tell you, baby.
18:53I think we'll do this thing.
18:53So, like, I'll tell you that, right?
18:56So, I thought you can do it now.
18:57So, I want to tell you what I think you said.
18:58So, I don't do it now, right?
19:00So, I'm getting to the other thing.
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