-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don’t rush to judge Jets’ troubled pick Last Updated: 9:07 AM, May 1, 2011 Posted: 12:31 AM, May 1, 2011 Mark Cannizzaro The announcement of the Jets’ third-round draft selection of Kenrick Ellis had barely finished echoing through Radio City Music Hall late Friday night when the knee-jerk reactionaries scurried out of the woodwork like cockroaches partying in a dirty kitchen after dark. There’s no denying that Ellis, who starred as a nose tackle at Hampton, has made his share of mistakes. He was dismissed from South Carolina reportedly for failing at least one drug test and he got into a fight last year at Hampton that has him embroiled in a pending court case for felony assault. ROLE MODEL: Jets third-round pick Kenrick Ellis can turn to Marcus Dixon (above, sacking the Bears’ Jay Cutler), another former Hampton defensive lineman with a checkered past, for advice on how to handle life in the pros. But Ellis, it should be noted, has never been convicted of a crime. NFL DRAFT: ALL THE PICKS And, after some research into the mistakes he has made and conversations with those closest to him, the Jets’ pick of Ellis appears to be much less risky than many have portrayed it to be. The Post yesterday reached out to Hampton head coach Donovan Rose, Hampton defensive coordinator Keith Goganious, Jets defensive lineman Marcus Dixon, who also went to Hampton and has advised Ellis, several league sources who looked into him and a highly-placed source at South Carolina who spent a lot of time with Ellis before he was kicked off the team. The consensus among everyone was that Ellis’ troubles were isolated incidents and that they are behind him. My conclusion is that not only does Ellis look like a good fit for Rex Ryan’s defense, but he also looks like a guy whose troubles are in the past. “He’s a quiet kid,” the South Carolina source said. “He wasn’t a bad kid. He just hung around with the wrong crowd and got involved with marijuana, and we drug test. He was young and made a mistake.” Ellis’ current issue stems from a fight he had a year ago. According to sources familiar with the case, which is scheduled to go to trial in July, someone harassed Ellis’ girlfriend and came at Ellis with a bat, prompting Ellis to act in self-defense. One source familiar with the case told The Post, “It will never even make it to trial.” Rose called the fight “a self-defense matter,” adding, “In all the time we had him at Hampton, that’s the only blemish in his three years.” “He’s been a model guy, a team leader,” Rose said. “All of us have done one thing or another in the past. He’s a great guy. I call him a gentle giant. He’s a ‘yes-sir, no-sir’ guy. He’s a great find for the Jets.” Ellis always will have to live with the mistakes he made, but that does not mean he’s a chronic offender who is bound to blow up in the faces of the Jets as so many pundits are blindly predicting. “Kenrick is at a point in his life where he’s grown up and he sees how blessed he is — especially after [Friday] night,” Goganious said. “He’s going to take this as a challenge to prove himself, to show the Jets, ‘I should be here. You guys didn’t make a mistake taking me.’ People are going to say, ‘Wow, this is a great kid.’ “ The NFL Draft is littered with players who have made mistakes. In 1997, the Jets drafted defensive tackle Jason Ferguson, who slipped to the seventh round because he had a history of marijuana use. Ferguson became one of the team’s best defensive linemen and went on to play 13 NFL seasons. Last year, the Jets signed Dixon, who spent time in jail before it was determined that he was wrongly accused of raping an underage girl. Dixon, who has been a solid citizen since the day he became a Jet, knows a thing or two about trying to shed a stigma. “Everyone has made mistakes,” Dixon said. “Kenrick has a new start with the Jets. The only thing he can do now is focus on playing football. All the other stuff will take care of itself. I don’t see him getting into any trouble anymore. I’m going to try to look out for him, but he knows it’s time be a grown man and play football. “My advice to him was, ‘You can’t be stressing about the past. You’ve just have to live and make sure you live the right way and people will forget. Just live.’ “ mcannizzaro@nypost.com
Just goes to show you that all of them are not assholes, like a certain asshole who works for ESPN, New York.....
Every new detail that comes out makes Ellis' side of the case look better and better. Ellis' head coach said the issue was started over a girl but this is the first mention I've seen of her as his girlfriend. So to recap: 1. Jerk-bag starts making unwanted advances on Ellis' girlfriend 2. Jerk-bag goes after Ellis with with a baseball bat 3. Jerk-bag fails miserably and gets his face broken 4. Cimini makes a series of sensationalist, poorly thought-out tweets Some other shit may have happened in there somewhere.
3.5 Jerk-bag feels like an idiot for being armed yet still getting beaten up, so he takes it to court
Cimini just needs to die. He was pissing all over this kid without checking on anything. I really wish that ESPN would hire somebody who actually liked the Jets to cover them. As much as Armando Salguero (or whatever his name is) is an absolutely blind Dolphins homer, at least people like to read the optimism about their team. With Cimini, every jets fan i have ever spoken to hates teh guy and despises the shit he writes. Sometimes I wish they would let fans have his job. We would actually appreciate it and shockingly enough we would have the time of our life doing it. As a result we would do it right. Really makes me miss E-Bola. He was the best, its a shame he prefers to cover the Yanks...
you kinda had to figure it was something/nothing.with all the resources these teams have to investigate shit,there's no way they would take him in the third if they thought there was a chance he'd go to jail
You forgot "Jerk-bag is probably a white guy, prompting this otherwise open and shut case to actually get a court date in Virginia."
Outstanding job by Mark. I thanked him on twitter for doing some real reporting while others were quick to judge. Cimini is completely despicable: calling a kid a "druggie" after the only so-called reporting you do is Googling Kenrick Ellis' name and finding a story about a pending court case? Cimini is a joke of a journalist and should be embarrassed.
I wish there was a record function on the Jets live stream of the pressers. I would love to make a youtube vid of Cimini frantically googling Ellis AFTER he basically calls the guy a thug. Fucking horrible excuse for reporting... As for Ellis, I give it 10% odds the guy doesn't play for us because of some freak bullshit trial garbage. So we have a 10% chance that we don't have a pure NT...how's that worked out for us the last two years? Not so bad. That leaves a 90% chance that this is totally overblown and we just got a fucking juggernaut (BITCH!) for the next decade to clog the middle. I like those odds.
I have to to tell you, I was surprised someone gave us the other side of the story. No doubt this headline is much less sensational than the "20 years in prison". I generally like Cimini"s work but he was way off base with his comments. An apology would be the right thing to do.
Props to Cannizzaro for looking into the whole story. Love the cockroach dig at Cimini (who really needs to be let go at this point). If Ellis can get his shite together and focus on football, this could become a stellar draft. I'm excited about the DL picks.
This article is seemingly telling Cimini to suck it Even after that brief description of what happened, I agree I dont know how it would make it to court
