Ryan Tannehill Denies ‘Slanderous’ Report He Mocked Dolphins’ Practice Squad Players

Ryan Tannehill is out to clear his name.

The National Football Post reported Monday that the Miami Dolphins quarterback mocked practice squad players during a practice in London, telling them to “enjoy your practice squad paycheck, enjoy your practice squad trophy,” when they intercepted his passes. But Tannehill on Wednesday told the Miami Herald that never happened.

At least not exactly.

“Yeah, I’m upset,” Tannehill said. “Honestly, it’s slanderous to report things that I didn’t say. To put words in my mouth that I didn’t say and to degrade my reputation and what I stand for, honestly, it’s sickening to me. On top of that, just the fact that something inside the locker room gets out, honestly it gets me upset.”

Tannehill said he did say something about making a scout team trophy for a player, but he never said anything about salaries.

“Am I happy about everything I said? No,” Tannehill said. “The way things went down? No. But I hold myself to a higher standard than to take a shot at someone like that, especially guys that I work with everyday and I respect how they go about their business.”

The 27-year-old signal-caller also stressed (again) that he’s not happy the Dolphins’ dysfunction is getting out of the locker room.

“Someone’s leaking, obviously,” Tannehill said. “I don’t think it’s a huge problem where everyone’s running to say everything that happened here, but I’d like to think as a team, when something happens in this building or out on the practice field, whatever it may be, that we protect each other and represent each other well. The fact that someone’s airing out our dirty laundry from within, it’s a bad feeling.”

Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images