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The Denver Broncos begin training camp Thursday morning and the storylines are abundant. One of those remains constant due to its hushed and murky nature.
Aqib Talib suffered a gunshot wound to the leg on June 5 and that injury will keep him out of the first day of training camp, that much is certain. Who fired the shot, where and under what circumstances remains unclear? Wednesday morning, the powers that be in the organization were asked about the incident and Talib’s health but little was ultimately revealed.
After revealing that Talib would start camp on the non-football injury list, General Manager John Elway was asked if he had spoken to Talib about what had happened early in the morning hours of June 5 and if he expects league discipline for the incident?
“I don’t know. I had one conversation with Talib about it so I don’t know what exactly the league is going to do,” Elway responded Wednesday. “When I heard the news, I was just glad that he was going to be ok so hopefully, we don’t have to go through it again but we will see what happens, what the league does.”
The Dallas Police Department, as well as the NFL, are continuing their investigations due to conflicting stories of the incident. According to WFAA TV’s Rebecca Lopez, Talib told an officer at the hospital, hours after the incident where he received stitches to his leg, that he had no idea who shot him, in part due to being intoxicated, but that it took place at a park in Dallas neighborhood. A Dallas Police Department incident report later listed the scene of an aggravated assault by an unknown suspect to be at a Dallas nightclub. Either way, the incident certainly reveals a poor choice in judgment by the NFL veteran.
“I can’t talk too much about what happened because it is under investigation, I think, in Dallas and whatever the league is pursuing. I know John has talked to him, maybe Coach Kubiak, a couple of others,” Broncos President and CEO Joe Ellis said Wednesday. “I think you always want your players to just try to make good decisions and put themselves in positions where they aren’t going to be in harm or anything like that. Having said that, I have talked to Talib. I didn’t talk to him about the incident, I just talked to him about how he is doing physically and seems to be coming along.”
Soon after the incident, Lopez cited the police report stating that the bullet entered Talib’s right thigh and exited out of his right calf. That detail corroborated the story BSN Denver first reported in which sources stated the wound was self-inflicted. Wednesday, Head Coach Gary Kubiak was asked directly if he believed Talib had shot himself. With neither a denial or any affirmation, he responded.
“Something took place,” Kubiak said, seemingly caught off guard by the question. “Like I said he is dealing with an injury. The good news is he’s fine.”
Certainly, the investigation is far from over but what is known is that Talib, after once again placing himself in a precarious situation and suffering a gunshot wound, will not be able to start training camp with his teammates on the field as a result. It appears that if details remain murky, Talib has little to fear from the NFL. If new, more self-damaging details emerge, Talib may be off of the field due to a non-injury related reason and for a substantial amount of time.
