Aldon Smith offered a short response to an online video that appears to feature him speaking off camera to an unidentified female about a hand-rolled cigarette.
The Raiders edge rusher and former 49er issued a four-word response on Twitter Monday morning, simply saying “Good try, not me.”
Smith, currently serving a calendar-year suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, has frequently appeared on camera using the Periscope account “ravenga,” though he never appears in the aforementioned video posted by that account, originally unearthed on Sunday by CSNBayarea.com.
[RELATED: Questionable social media video appears to show Aldon Smith]
Smith’s tweet seems to offer a denial that he was in that video. The unidentified female in the video questions whether a post should be made at all, and the male, which sounds like Smith when compared to other installments where he is shown on screen, rebuts by saying his face can’t be seen and, “they don’t know it’s me. It’s not like I put 'Aldon Smith'…”
The video cuts off at that point. There is nothing in the Periscope video that directly shows he has violated stipulations for a player attempting to get reinstated from a calendar-year Stage Three banishment of the substance abuse policy, or that he is the male in the video.
The league will investigate whether he did so or not, a source confirmed to CSNBayArea.com.
Smith is drug tested regularly and randomly during his suspension, and results of those tests will carry significant weight in his reinstatement application.
Smith signed with the Raiders in early September 2015, a month after he was released by the 49ers following an Aug. 6 run-in with the law that prompted misdemeanor charges of DUI with a prior conviction, hit and run and vandalism by the Santa Clara County District Attorney. He is also on probation from a previous DUI conviction.
Smith was suspended by the league after playing nine games in Silver and Black. His time with the Raiders was overwhelmingly positive, and he was well liked in the locker room and by the front office. The team signed him to a two-year contract this offseason worth $11.5 million but does not contain guaranteed money.
Smith can’t have contract with Raiders personnel outside the team’s player engagement director, a rule head coach Jack Del Rio criticized this offseason.
Smith can apply for reinstatement 60 days before his suspension ends in November. According to the league’s substance abuse policy, Smith’s application must contain information about: “(a) Treatment; (b) Abstinence from Substances of Abuse throughout the entire period of his banishment; (c) Involvement with any Substances of Abuse related incidents; and (d) Arrests and/or convictions for any criminal activity, including Substances of Abuse-related offense.”
To clarify, Smith can be reinstated from his suspension in a calendar year at the earliest, though his reinstatement doesn't have a deadline and will be decided by the NFL and, ultimately, Commissioner Roger Goodell based on factors listed in the previous paragraph.
