National Football League

NFL Draft hopeful Ray arrested before biggest day of his life

Published Apr. 28, 2015 12:29 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Andrew Doughty

Shane Ray was busted for marijuana possession less than 96 hours before the NFL Draft. We can engage in a never-ending debate over the legalization of weed but there is absolutely no debate as to whether or not Ray should be carrying drugs shortly before a day that will decide his NFL future.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s website and SB Nation, the former Missouri defensive end and likely first round pick was arrested at 6:07 AM in Cooper County, Missouri. He was released after being cited for the following items:

1) Possession of 35 grams of less of marijuana.

2) Failure to drive in the right lane of the highway with two or more lanes.

Ray’s camp will likely be bombarded with phone calls before Thursday’s NFL Draft, with teams attempting to check every detail of the arrest before selecting him. The arrest could also land him a spot in State 1 of the NFL’s substance-abuse program upon being drafted. He issued the following statement following the incident:

I’d like to apologize to my Mother, Fans and prospective NFL teams for my poor judgement Monday morning . I am embarrassed and realize there are consequences for my actions. I was not under the influence nor impaired , therefore I was not detained. Fortunately, Mondays incident only resulted in a citation. I will make better choices in the future. It is imperative that I continue to strive to better myself. My future NFL career has been something I have always dreamed about and is very important to me. I commit that my actions will represent that. There are no excuses here and I will take the necessary steps to ensure this will not happen again. I will not jeopardize my ability to have a positive impact on and off the field moving forward.

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