TCU has officially responded to the story put out this morning that claimed offensive lineman Marcus Cannon had been diagnosed with testicular cancer, through a statement from media relations director Mark Cohen. "It''s 100 percent inaccurate," Cohen told National Football Post. "It's a false report. It stunned me. You wonder where did it come from? It's disappointing that someone could just throw that out there."
Cannon himself was reportedly upset by the story, and understandably so: even a hint of an ongoing health problem can be enough to scare potential NFL employers into dropping a player far down their draft boards- and potentially costing that player millions of dollars in future earnings.
So why was the story put out there? I've got two theories. One is that this false information was leaked to a reporter by an NFL team who wants to draft Cannon, but wants to dissuade other teams from being interested in doing so and thus allowing them to take him later (and cheaper). The other, more likely scenario is that the website, NFLmocks.com, just wanted to cause a little bit of a pre-draft stir and increase their traffic numbers.
Either way, since we here at Spit Blood included a link to the story in this morning's dump, we felt we needed to help clarify the situation. If any NFL GMs are reading this (they aren't) that need a 6'5", 358 lb insurance policy for their QB's blind side, stop reading NFLmocks.com and just make sure you've got a #61 jersey ready.
