The Arizona Cardinals selected safety Jalen Thompson in the supplemental draft this week. He was in the supplemental draft because he lost the final year of his college eligibility.
However, Cardinals fans should not be worried about Thompson’s character. According to his college head coach, Washington State’s Mike Leach, that is not a concern at all.
“This guy’s outstanding. He’s first-class. He’s an honest, straightforward guy, an incredibly hard worker. No moral character issues,” Leach said on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “When you consider where he came from, he’s from right across the street from the Compton airport. I get a kick out of this — you know everybody wants to act like they came from a real tough neighborhood. You can’t throw a dead cat without hitting a guy who says he came from a tough neighborhood … somebody walked 10 miles to go to the restroom and 20 miles to go to school and all this other stuff. Jalen actually did live in a tough, tough, tough neighborhood.”
His loss of eligibility was not an issue of character. It was inadvertently taking a supplement that had a banned substance.
“He had a guy that worked at … one of those supplement stores like a GNC, brings his stuff home — and his roommates lifted weighs and stuff — so Jalen takes it and it’s got a banned substance in it,” Leach said. “And it’s a fairly onerous penalty to pay.”
Thompson will need to be more careful in the pros but he doesn’t come with any other off-the-field baggage.
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