Guest Author
I have some questions about the quarterback’s wife and the assault rifle that slipped her mind.
Allow me to recap what we know. On Saturday, Jan. 4, Lauren Ashley Tannehill, wife of Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill, rented a 2013 Nissan Rogue from E-Z Rent-A-Car at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
She kept it for two hours and then left a bag containing an AR-15 assault rifle in the back seat. The seats were folder down, covering the bag. Later that day, a tourist from New York rented the Nissan. On Monday, the tourist flipped up the back seats and found the rifle.
Freaked out, she called E-Z Rent-A-Car and someone there told her to turn the gun into the cops. She went to the Hillsboro Beach police, who took the gun and quickly determined that it belonged to Mr. Tannehill.
Mrs. Tannehill is a Bible-readin’, gun-shootin’ fashion model from Texas. According to a story Saturday in the Sun Sentinel, she’s active on Twitter and Facebook, loves her two dogs and sends Bible verses to Mr. Tannehill before his games.
I don’t know what verses she sent before the last two games of the season, but they were not sufficiently inspirational. The Dolphins lost both games and were eliminated from the playoffs. Mr. Tannehill’s performance in both games was dismal.
Question: Why would the wife of a well-compensated NFL quarterback rent a Nissan SUV on a Saturday and return it two hours later and rent another car? More interesting, why did she put an assault rifle in the back seat of the first vehicle and fold the seats down over it?
Question: Why didn’t the folks at E-Z Rental find the gun when they prepared the SUV for the next customer?
Question: Published reports say the Tannehills called the rental-car company to report that Mrs. Tannehill had left an item in the car – but didn’t tell the company that the item was an AR-15. Why?
Question: If the Tannehills in fact reported a missing item, why didn’t E-Z immediately contact the New York tourist and try to find the missing item?
Question: The rifle is worth more than $2,000, a nice chunk of change even for an NFL quarterback. If Mrs. Tannehill left it in the Nissan on Saturday, why wouldn’t either Ryan or Lauren go to E-Z and demand that the company return the missing item? If my assault rifle was missing and I had a good idea where it was, I damn sure would want it back asap. (I have never owned a gun.)
Question: The Hillsboro police say they notified Mr. Tannehill they have his rifle. Presumably, they did so about Jan. 6. It’s now Jan. 19 and the cops still have the rifle.
The Tannehills reportedly are out of town. A Dolphins spokesperson has told the media that the quarterback and the model consider all this a personal matter and will not be commenting.
Anyone with an ounce of skepticism must be wondering what’s going on here. At the moment, the story doesn’t add up.
