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What's the truth about Jay Ajayi's knee?

#KneeSlander

By Drew Roberts
Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Despite not partaking in recreational drugs, I found myself talking at length about joints and getting blitzed on 4/20...but I promise you, I can explain. You see, Boise State coaches have descended on the Golden State as part of their 3-day "Bronco Blitz"—the object of which is, ostensibly to locate "ballers"

We probably won't know how successful this completely legal blitz is for a few months, but it's a great idea nonetheless.

Now, to the second most popular joint of note on 4/20—Jay Ajayi's knee. It's really no revelation that Jay Ajayi had a fairly significant knee injury as a true freshman at Boise State. This is all public knowledge and nothing that had to be dug up through a FOIA request. Jay Ajayi mangled his ACL during his...um...rocky true freshman season. A season where the knee was actually the least of people's worries about Ajayi.

Luckily for us, Ajayi turned things around both in the ligament department and the citizen department and put together a sterling 3 year playing career on The Blue. To my knowledge, Ajayi was nothing but a phenomenal player on the field from 2012 to 2014 and a phenomenal ambassador for the program off the field. Now that Ajayi is being scrutinized for potential millions, however, some of those skeletons won't stay in the closet. But it's his knee that apparently became the area-of-concern du jour for Ajayi, who some feel is one of the top four backs available in this year's draft. Here's ONE of the initial "reports" that started the rumor mill a spinnin (the first tweet mysteriously disappeared)':

Boise State fans were quick to doubt the veracity of these claims based on the scientific research we'd all done known as "watching Jay Ajayi run the ball for three years". I don't have a MRI machine or have a license to perform arthroscopic surgery (well, not a legitimate one, anyway), but the proof on Ajayi's knee—as they say—is in the pudding, and since Jay hails from London...make it figgy. Further doubts were rightly cast when the news swirled that Ajayi's knee had been flagged at a medical re-check that Jay's agent said he never attended—nor was asked to. Furthermore, another top RB in this draft class, UGA's Todd Gurley, who has a FRESH knee injury was not "flagged" in kind. So what gives? What else is Ajayi being "dinged" for that a cursory glance at his TWENTY-THREE HUNDRED all-purpose yards from last season didn't assuage?

So, what is the truth on Ajayi's knee? Is it dangling by a meaty thread? Were the last three years and billions of carries an elaborate ruse? Turns out, it might have just been some gamesmanship perpetrated by NFL teams that are actually coveting the Jay Train.

"Why are reports emerging of concerns with Ajayi’s knee?  Because one or more teams love Ajayi enough to trash him privately, in the hopes he’ll be available when they hope to land him in the draft." —ProFootballTalk

I've heard of character assassination, but this is something different, and something that shows just how cutthroat/knee the business of the NFL can really be. Our pal Damien might've said it best when he dubbed it "knee slander". So "maybe" it's a lie, but there are a lot of zeroes at stake and remember, as George Costanza once said—and I fear GMs may take to heart: "It's not a lie if you believe it."