Former Raiders DT Christian Wilkins Allegedly "Playfully Kissed A Teammate On His Head", Which May Or May Not Have Led to His Release From The Team

Adam Schefter would have to be crazy to bring this up on one of ESPN's premier daytime shows if there weren't any legs to it, right? I feel like Pat McAfee and his down-to-earth co-hosts probably have the situation pegged (no pun intended) pretty well. If this whole forehead kiss thing actually happened, and a Raiders' player was legitimately upset about it, which is what is Adam Schefter is reporting in a "Ehh yeah kinda sorta yeah that's definitely what I'm hearing" type of way. Then it all comes down to a combination of two things:

A) How valuable (and how mad) is the player who was kissed?

B) How valuable do the Raiders think Christian Wilkins is?

It's a classic hot-crazy scale situation. "I'll put up with ___ much crazy from my significant other if they bring ___ much hotness to the table.

Manny Ramirez threw a traveling secretary down a flight of stairs and batted cleanup the next day. Shaquille O'Neal could have lined up every teammate (except for Kobe), and kissed them all on the head of the penis, and nobody would have said shit beyond, "Ahhhhh man, that's just Shaq being Shaq".

Honestly, if that exact story came out about Shaq tomorrow, I don't think anybody would bat an eye. It's pretty much on par with the locker room stories we've become accustomed to hearing about Shaq. 

In Christian Wilkins case, it's more about injury than talent. He's a top 10 defensive tackle if he's healthy. But whether or not he's fully healthy, or whether or not the Raiders think he'll be able to get back to what he once was is unknown to the public. He's still recovering from a fracture in his left foot that he suffered last season. The Raiders wanted him to get surgery on it. Christian Wilkins did not. 

ESPN – The belief was that Wilkins needed another surgery on his foot; he balked at getting it, sources told ESPN. The Raiders then voided the guaranteed money left on his deal due to "failure to maintain his physical condition to play."

Wilkins had 50 days from June 4 to ask the NFLPA to file a grievance on his behalf, and the union did so Thursday, the last day it was eligible, sources said.

The union had no comment Thursday night. The next step after filing a grievance would be a hearing.

"We have decided that it is in the best interests of the organization to move on from Christian Wilkins and he has been informed of his release from the team," the Raiders said in a statement. "This franchise has a commitment of excellence on and off the field. With no clear path or plan for future return to play from Christian, this transaction is necessary for the entire organization to move forward and prepare for a new season."

So now that this alleged forehead kiss drama has been brought to light, the million dollar question is how much of Christian Wilkins release was due to legitimate health & football reasons, and how much was due to him making his teammates uncomfortable? Did the the Raiders' front office really think him not getting surgery was going to drastically affect his career? Or did they not care much at all, but he made the wrong person so uncomfortable that they used him refusing surgery as an excuse so they weren't hit with a, "CHRISTIAN WILKINS RELEASED FOR BEING GAY" headline on The Huffington Post.

And who did Christian Wilkins kiss? On the extreme end, Christian Wilkins was recovering fine, but he passionately kissed Maxx Crosby's head in the shower, and Maxx Crosby threatened to retire on the spot if he wasn't cut. On the other end, the Raiders may no longer think Christian Wilkins is worth the money. They may think his refusal to get surgery means he's no longer taking football seriously, so him making any person in the locker room uncomfortable was enough of a cherry on top for them to pull the trigger on his release. 

I don't know what the answer is, so I'm not going to hazard a guess. No matter how much I'm thinking to myself, "Boy does Maxx Crosby sure fit the bill for the this one", I'm not going to pretend I know what's going on inside of the Raiders' locker room. But I can't write this blog without sharing two incidents, which in hindsight, give this whole story SO MUCH more life.

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I don't remember Christian Wilkins kissing Mike Gesicki on the neck at all. That must have been apple picking weekend for me and the wife. But I sure do remember a Clemson playing sticking his finger up an Ohio State player's butt. It wasn't until this blog that I remembered it was Christian Wilkins. The fact that Christian Wilkins has two previous incidents of that nature.. I mean… it's very funny if nothing else. There's a substantial amount of evidence that says Christian Wilkins is the type of guy who would make a different type of guy pretty fucking uncomfortable in the locker room. 

To me it all seems silly. It's a kiss on the head, dude. Relax. I saw way more, "zesty" shit in my high school hockey locker room. At one point in time, the big joke was putting your hand over someone's mouth, then making out with the back of your hand so it looked like you were kissing your boy. There was one time our head coach walked-in on our team examining my friend's long balls by way of tapping them with a Nerds Rope. And the big rumor going into high school was that when you made the team, the big hazing ritual was that all first year players had to jack-off onto a piece of toast, and the last person to finish had to eat it. 

That third one was bullshit. The toast game never actually happened. At least not when I played. But there was definitely a time back in 6th grade where I thought to myself, "Well damn, John. I guess that's what it takes if you want to play hockey in this town". 

I'm sure some people will think that's fucking insane. It's all just dumb, funny, team-building locker room shenanigans if you ask me. But if your team leaders don't think that's funny… and the person making them feel uncomfortable is a fairly new, expensive, injury prone interior lineman in the back half of his career… then you know how that's going to play out. Maybe the Raiders' best players don't think that's funny. Or maybe, Christian Wilkins just stinks now. It's one or the other. Or a combination of both.