Cincinnati Bengals rookie offensive tackle Andre Smith apparently will re-hire agent Alvin Keels, whom he fired just more than one week before the draft, according to a report tonight on NFL.com.Smith, the former Huffman High standout, hired Rick Smith of Priority Sports after firing Keels, but he recently fired him, too. Smith was selected sixth overall by the Bengals after a whirlwind of pre-draft drama that prompted his stock to drop. Smith, the Outland Trophy winner at Alabama, was considered the top offensive tackle entering the draft, but he left the NFL Scouting Combine without telling anyone, then had a marginal pro-day workout, generating concerns about his conditioning. Smith was the second offensive tackle taken in the draft, behind Baylor's Jason Smith, who was selected second overall by the Rams.
In the wake of the news that Bengals tackle Andre Smith has fired agent Rick Smith and is poised to rehire Alvin Keels, whom Andre Smith fired several weeks before the draft, multiple league sources tell us that the firing and rehiring of Keels was planned.Keels went on the record Tuesday night to dispute this allegation.“I haven’t been rehired yet,” Keels told us via e-mail. “Honestly, I might not get him back. If I do get him back it definitely wasn’t planned that he fire then rehire me.”The theory here is that, by firing Keels and hiring the more established Rick Smith of Priority Sports, Andre Smith proved to the teams interested in selecting him that the former Alabama standout was finally beginning to “get it.”Keels disagrees."I don’t think Andre terminating me helped his draft stock at all,” LMAO Keels said. “I have maintained the stance that an agent doesn’t play much in getting a player drafted outside of offering pre-draft advice and I believe the Bengals would say the same thing. At the time Andre fired me there wasn’t much advice to give outside of what to wear for the cameras on draft day.”We don’t necessarily agree. Though Keels doesn’t have the same kind of negative reputation that the Postons endured four years ago, certain agents can cause a team to avoid a given player.Moreover, there’s a chance that Andre Smith was being told by one or more other agents that he needed to fire Keels in order to persuade teams that Andre Smith acknowledged the errors that were made during the pre-draft preparations, including the bizarrely stupid decision to run a 40-yard dash while not wearing a shirt.And there’s a chance that Andre Smith still wanted to deal with Keels. And so there’s a chance that Keels and Smith agreed to the fire-and-rehire scenario.Again, Keels denies it. But other sources say otherwise.
Honestly though, how could things go so wrong so fast? He seemed on all accounts level headed for 99% of his career at Alabama and has proven the opposite ever since.
This is the question I keep expecting to hear the answer to.Some chemical imbalance is discovered or the like.
Yes, if by "chemical imbalance" you mean all the money, stardom, and ego trips that a top 10 first round pick in the NFL draft will afford.
I'd love to be so chemically imbalanced. I have smallish man-teets. I could grow them larger and take my shirt off.
Just tell me when, stud. I'll bring the baby oil...
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