Laremy Tunsil's stepfather claims the fight started over 'football agents'

The details of Laremy Tunsil's police report were finally published on Tuesday afternoon, and most of them are rather expected. The stepdad of the star Ole Miss lineman told police that during last Thursday's incident, Tunsil instigated a fight, shoved him into the wall and wailed on him -- all allegations we had heard before.

The allegation we hadn't heard before is that Tunsil, thought to be a top-five pick in next year's NFL Draft, was hanging out with pro agents that night.

The official police report is still stalled up in the Lafayette County Sheriffs Department, but The Clarion-Ledger managed to wrangle up a copy. In it, Tunsil's stepdad, Lindsey Miller, told sheriffs deputies that the altercation began with an argument over Tunsil "riding around with football agents." When the deputies arrived at roughly 7 p.m., Miller told them that "Tunsil and the agents" had driven off in a yellow convertible.

Keep in mind that this is solely Miller's side of the story -- neither Tunsil or his mother were around when the cops showed up. The responding deputy did attempt to call the mother, but she didn't answer her phone. Tunsil went to the sheriffs office at 10 that same night to provide a voluntary statement, but that statement wasn't attached to the copy of the police report obtained by the CL.

The other side of the story is that Tunsil was defending his mother after Miller pushed her. Miller was booked and released from jail on Tuesday morning, four days after Tunsil was booked for similar misdemeanor assault charges.

Meeting with agents is not an NCAA violation, mind you

NCAA regulations forbid a student athlete from signing with an agent but contain no mandate against talking to them. Bylaw 12.1.1.g. states that "an individual loses amateur status and thus shall not be eligible for intercollegiate competition in a particular sport if the individual enters into an agreement with an agent."

The appended "rationale" paragraph includes this language: "It should be noted that the prohibition against the use of an agent would remain applicable and would continue to jeopardize the eligibility of any individual who agrees (orally or in writing) for such representation."

"We are aware that Laremy & his family have met with potential agents, which is within his NCAA rights as a student-athlete," Hugh Freeze said in a statement, per Riley Blevins. "Regarding the altercation, we will continue to gather facts & cooperate with the proper authorities."

So, per Coach Freeze and a face-value reading of bylaw 12.1.1.g, Tunsil was well within his eligibility rights to be in the presence of a person who happens to be a sports agent, so long as he and that person didn't enter into a representation agreement either orally or in writing. All of this sounds fairly deniable for Tunsil and the supposed agent character, assuming Tunsil's stepfather is even telling the truth here. But who the hell knows what the truth is in this case. In any event, the NCAA has been known to act capriciously when left to its own judgment.

UPDATE: Talking with an agent isn't against the rules, but accepting transportation from one is. Ole Miss told The Clarion-Ledger that if Tunsil did indeed ride off in that yellow convertible with his agent buddies, it would be a violation of NCAA bylaw 12.3. The university cited the case of a USC player who took a quick golf cart ride with an agent in 2010 and ended up being suspended for one game and having to donate $5 (the calculated cost of the ride) to charity.

The rest of the police report

Here's a basic run down of the report, according to The Clarion-Ledger:

• Miller said that he and his wife, Desiree Tunsil, got into an argument over Tunsil's involvement with agents. He claimed that she was walking out of the house when her son entered.
• According to Miller, he extended his hand for a handshake, but that Tunsil shoved him against the wall and started punching him.
• Four other men were reportedly in the house during the incident, including Derek, one of Miller's two sons.
• Derek told police that his father and Mrs. Tunsil were cussing at each other when Tunsil entered. According to Derek, Tunsil shoved Miller to the ground, jumped on top of him and started hitting him.