According to a report published on Sunday, a car accident in 2024 involving former Miami Hurricanes player Rueben Bain Jr. resulted in the death of a passenger. Authorities cited him for driving “in a careless or negligent manner” after the crash.
The court ultimately dismissed the citation for “defective citation” approximately two weeks before the passenger died. The driver of the other vehicle filed a negligence lawsuit against Bain in October 2024, claiming that the crash caused him both physical harm and psychological distress. He would later voluntarily drop the case with prejudice.
According to the Read Optional, “Multiple league sources confirmed they are aware of the incident and are continuing to investigate.” Prior to the report, scouts viewed Bain as one of the top prospects in this year’s NFL Draft. Whether the news of his crash will affect Bain’s draft status remains unknown.
Would Jerry Jones really stoop so low to get a player in the draft?
One person who could stand to benefit if Rueben Bain Jr. falls in the 2026 NFL Draft is Dallas Cowboys owner slash general manager Jerry Jones. The Cowboys own the 12th pick in the draft, and, according to talking head Skip Bayless, Jones may have been the one to leak the report about Rueben Bain’s crash.
“Dallas picks 12th, and if I know Jerry Jones, I wouldn’t put it past Jerry to leak something like this because he knew the background,” Bayless said this week. “I’m not saying he did, but this is the Jerry I know because I was around him a lot in Dallas. And this happens all the time, that a team will leak something like this when they’ve done their homework and research, and they’re totally cool with it.
“It was just an accident. He rear-ended the guy, he just didn’t stop fast enough, and it was a tragedy, but it was a tragic accident. Jerry has had a long list of off-the-field hell-raisers. His all-time favorite player is Michael Irvin, who frankly made Aqib (Talib) look like a choir boy. … And so, Jerry is used to that kind of behavior.
“Even Ezekiel Elliot had off-the-field stuff at Ohio State, and Jerry took him fourth overall,” Skip Bayless continued. “Would Jerry take Rueben Bain now? Again, I don’t know the exact background that they’re checking into as we speak, but yeah, he probably would. He’d probably love it if Rueben Bain fell to 12.”
Skip Bayless went on to cite the Cowboys signing La’el Collins
“La’el Collins, he was an All-American tackle at LSU,” Bayless added. “And just before the draft it is leaked and broken that because a woman he had had a past relationship with, who was pregnant at the time, had been murdered… and the Louisiana police simply wanted to question him about the matter.
“And he was completely absolved later, but this came right before the draft. They were going to talk to him, not even as a person of interest, just to do background check on and see if he had any information, and he would’ve gone top 10, and he goes undrafted and Jerry is like, ‘Thank you very much,’ and they sign him as an undrafted free agent. He was pretty good.”