Collins’ agents eliminate 16 teams from contention and give briefings to the remaining suitors. The contract would be non-negotiable. Collins would get a guaranteed contract with no offsets, second- and third-year maximum salaries for a UDFA, and the remainder of Team X’s signing bonus cash pool. If he were ever charged or indicted in the murder investigation, the guarantees would disappear and the contract would be torn up.
The agents narrow the list to a handful of teams, and then Collins cuts it down even more. He wants to be close to home, and he doesn’t want to be anywhere cold.
He books a trip to Dallas...
Collins is not the father.
The news sets off a different kind of frenzy. In the eyes of NFL teams, it is now more probable than not that Collins had nothing to do with the murder of Brittany Mills and her son. (At the time of publication, police in Baton Rouge had not made an arrest or identified a suspect.)
Gilmore's and Collins' smartphones won't stop buzzing. There are typically no recruitment visits for UDFAs; you go to a team with the intention of signing. Still, Collins has a contingency plan. He’ll to go Miami if Dallas doesn’t feel right...
Jones and Collins talk into the night, and Collins understands that he’ll have the chance to start immediately if he can beat out ho-hum left guard Ronald Leary.
Collins decides to sleep on it before making a final decision...
Along with his son, Stephen, the Cowboys’ chief operating officer, and his daughter, Charlotte Anderson, a Cowboys’ executive vice president, Jerry Jones arrives at Collins’ hotel to make one final pitch. Later in the morning, Collins tells his mother and agent, “There’s no other place I need to be. I believe that in my heart.”
