Jadeveon Clowney Draft Stock Could Drop After Absurd Speeding Ticket

Jadeveon Clowney has a need for speed, and it may cost him come NFL draft time

The South Carolina defensive end was ticketed on Saturday night for driving 110 miles per hour in a 70 mile per hour zone. He was handed a ticket from the South Carolina Highway Patrol that will cost him $355, but Jadeveon Clowney might lose a lot more if teams look at him as a gamble.

Clowney is currently one of the top NFL prospects, a sure-fire top 5 pick come April. But there has been speculation that the latest incident could make teams take a second glance, and Clowney is likely to face some extra scrutiny when players are put through the pre-Draft ringer.

While it may seem unlikely that a once-in-a-lifetime talent like Jadeveon Clowney would not be hurt by the kind of transgression that everyone has done at some point in their lives, the Draft is difficult to predict. Warren Sapp entered the draft after a thoroughly dominant season at the University of Miami, but an unsubstantiated report that he tested positive for cocaine dropped Sapp all the way to No. 12.

Sapp said once he was branded a “troubled” player, the stigma was impossible to erase — despite the fact that the NFL released a statement the next day that the cocaine report was false.

“The way it came out, it scarred me for life,” Sapp said after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected him with the 12th overall pick. “No matter what I do, it’ll always be there.”

Clowney could see his draft status sink a bit for reasons unrelated to his speeding ticket. He has managed only three sacks this season while missing two games, as opposing teams have crafted gameplans around stopping him.

While it’s more than likely he will remain in the top five, there are plenty of NFL teams that likely wish Jadeveon Clowney could sink a bit down so they can snatch him.