It was about this time a year ago that rumors started to swirl around Christian Wilkins and the setback he experienced during rehab after surgery on his foot.
At the time, no one would have guessed that Wilkins’ foot would be the least of the Raiders’ concerns by the time the team released him in July.
It was reported that Wilkins kissed defensive tackle Adam Butler “playfully” at some point during their time together on the Raiders, but according to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, whatever happened between Wilkins and his teammates in Las Vegas was enough to keep him out of the league for the last year.
“I mean, whatever happened in that locker room, I don’t know exactly what it was. But on top of the injury part, I think it just sounds like that’s going to be a tough one for for him to overcome and for a team to want to be able to bring him in the locker room. Even if it’s Dexter Dexter. Lawrence is one of his closest friends. It doesn’t sound like that’s one where it’s going to be easy to bring him into your locker room.”
“Some of the things you hear you’re like, ‘Wow, okay, that would be tough to bring in.’ Those are the kind of things that just kind of go through the roof, right? The tornado starts and the rumors and it just starts… I mean, if I even just said some of the things that I heard it would go viral.”
There have been rumors, but no one in the league has been willing to come forward and report on the accusations against Wilkins.
Last year, Chat Sports Raiders Report host Mitchell Renz was the first to report on Wilkins refusing to have a second medical procedure on his foot and said later in the offseason that there were legal reasons keeping Wilkins’ story out of the public eye. Renz also said a source told him that whatever Wilkins was allegedly involved in is “an impossible thing to ever go public with.”
Raiders podcast host Graphk Raider shared in July what he heard on the Wilkins story, and he said the details floating around behind closed doors were much worse than what was made public.
“Adam Schefter and Pat McAfee were saying that it was a kiss on the forehead and, once again, I’m hearing totally different things behind the scenes that it’s even worse than that,” Graphk said on his OVL Raiders Network podcast.
“I’ve heard from multiple people now. After the show yesterday… one of my guys out there that was on the ground told me about it. I’ve heard from two or three separate people now that it’s way more deep than a kiss on the forehead.”
x: @raidersbeat