Atlanta didn't draft Shane Ray because of . . . Michael Vick?

By now you know the story, just days before the NFL draft, projected early first-round pick, Shane Ray was cited for marijuana possession on the freeway after being pulled over for driving in the left lane for too long. The citation made nationwide headlines, mostly for its proximity to the draft.

Ray, who, of course, fell in the draft due to the run-in with the law and is now a Denver Bronco, opened up to BSN Denver’s Brandon Krisztal on the PTO Podcast this week about the incident and told an interesting story about his conversations with the Atlanta Falcons leading up to the draft.

Atlanta held the eighth pick in the draft and Ray along with many others considered that a very likely destination for the pass rusher, but after the citation, things took an odd turn.

“Atlanta was still calling me,” Ray told Krisztal. “I talked to Atlanta every day leading up to the draft and I told them the same story.”

The story, as he tells it, is that he was pulled over for spending too much time in the left lane, the cop said he smelled marijuana, Ray complied with the cop admitting there was marijuana, the cop cited him and he was on his way.

Of course, the story took on a mind of its own, reports indicating that he was arrested, questions about whether he was an abuser of the drug etc., it was no longer just a marijuana possession citing on the outside.

“A lot of people didn’t believe [my story],” Ray said, talking of those in the Falcons front office. “I was like, ‘Look, man, do I need to take a drug test right now? I’m cooperating completely, what is it you want me to do?'”

Ray was asked to repeat the story to multiple Falcons officials, head coach, GM, owner and on, and on.

“I told Atlanta, ‘You can drug test me right now’,” he reiterated. “I’ve told you what happened over and over again.”

What the Falcons told Ray on the day before the draft is, well, interesting to say the least.

“They were like, ‘You’re still our guy, it’s just the GM’,” Ray explained. “I couldn’t believe he said this, he was like, ‘The GM (Thomas Dimitroff), ever since what happened with Michael Vick, we just want to have a clean slate’.”

Obviously, Ray ended up not being the Falcons guy, as they went with another outside linebacker in Vic Beasley out of Clemson. How much of that had to do with Shane Ray’s citation on the phantom connection the Falcons drew to Michael Vick, we’ll never know, but however much it is, is ridiculous.

We’re talking about an incident that happened nearly 10 years ago involving the brutal killing of animals being compared with a guy having a few bucks worth of weed in his car. Think about that.

Ray and Beasley both had four sacks in the regular season, Beasley doing it in 538 defensive snaps while Ray did it in just 341.

Make sure you listen to Krisztal’s entire 90-minute sit-down with Shane Ray to hear this story along with many, many more from Ray’s rough upbringing in the “Murder Factory” all the way to his time with the Broncos.