Jeff Fisher made it clear: “We had some 7-9 bulls— this morning and we can’t have that. Deon is gone,” he said on HBO’s Hard Knocks. Fisher, the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, held the former Maryland receiver accountable on national TV after he broke team rules during training camp.
What egregious rule did Long break that would cause the head coach to go ballistic? Long, 25, brought a woman into his training camp dorm, which broke the Rams’ rule of having no visitors in the room, as shown on Tuesday’s episode of Hard Knocks.
“What part of the rules, what part of ‘no female guests in the room,’ did you not understand?” Fisher said to Long.
Long tried to defend his case by saying it was before curfew and that he had no intentions of having the woman stay overnight, but his pleading could not save himself from breaking the team violation and ultimately getting cut.
The former Terp was a four-star wide receiver commit and ranked as the 45th best player at his position in 2009, higher than Josh Gordon and former teammate Stedman Bailey. The D.C. native was a standout sprinter and football player at Dunbar High School. Long originally played at New Mexico St. and led the team with 809 receiving yards in his first season, but bounced around the country before playing two seasons at Maryland in 2013 and 2014.
During Long’s time at Maryland, he could never match the numbers he produced for the Lobos, but in 2014 he emerged as the second-best receiver on the team, with 575 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Long went undrafted in 2015 and played for three different teams in training camp before failing to make an NFL roster during the regular season. Long signed with the Philadelphia Eagles last Friday, but after this public offense, he has to hope other NFL executives are not watching the sports reality documentary.
