ESPN Former Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster on Thursday said he tested positive for a diluted urine sample at the NFL combine earlier this year. “This is something that’s going to get out,” Foster told NFL.com on Thursday. “I don’t make excuses. I’m a real dude. I try to be a good person. … I just hope the coaches understand and that’s all I can hope and pray for.” Under provisions of the NFL’s substance abuse policy, a diluted sample is treated like a positive test. Foster told NFL.com that the positive test came after he tried to rehydrate himself after coming down with what he believed to be food poisoning. He said that, before the combine, he had been vomiting, cramping and suffering from diarrhea, and that he declined IVs and instead got medication from a doctor. “I couldn’t eat much, but I had to drink water and Gatorade,” Foster told NFL.com. “Then a few coaches said something about me being too light. And I’m a coach-pleaser. I don’t care what everybody thinks, but I care what coaches think. So I drank and ate as much as I could without throwing up. Then I went in there, drinking and drinking water, trying to flush out my system from whatever was making me sick and trying to keep my weight up and took the test.” Foster, once regarded as a potential top-10 pick in the NFL draft, was sent home from the combine after a “heated altercation” with a hospital worker, sources told ESPN on March 4. The NFL at the time would only say that it was for “personal reasons.” In their latest two-round mock draft, ESPN NFL draft Insiders Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay project Foster to be selected at the Nos. 15 and 17 spots, respectively. Foster was Alabama’s leading tackler last season and a unanimous first-team All-American. He also won the Butkus Award, given to the nation’s best linebacker. He had rotator cuff surgery in his right shoulder after the season and was projected to be fully recovered by the start of NFL training camps.

Has anyone ever has a worse NFL combine experience than former Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker Reuben Foster? He was a potential top five pick when he showed up at the combine, but he just had shoulder surgery, and could not participate in any drills. Then Foster got into an argument with a hospital worker, and was sent home from the combine, the obly player that I can remember who was sent home from Indianapolis for disciplinary reasons. Now it has been announced that, while at the combine in Indianapolis, Foster tested positive for a diluted urine sample, which he swears happened because he was sick. Not because of a masking agent used to avoid a positive drug test. Reuben Foster is thought of as a good kid, but scouts think that he loves the party scene too much, and are worried what will happen when he’s got millions of dollars in his pocket. I predict that Reuben Foster is a day two pick due to character concerns, and I think it’s better that he goes to a city like Green Bay or Buffalo, as opposed to Miami or Los Angeles.