After being charged on Sunday with making a false report of a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith has been released on $20,000 bail, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Aldon Smith released from jail on $20,000 bail
The 49ers star is in trouble once again with law enforcement, continuing a troubling pattern.
Brian Bahr
Aldon Smith arrested
Aldon Smith arrested
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department says Smith may have been drinking before the threat was made, but it did not factor into his arrest. However, as pointed out by the Mercury News, that is a major problem if true for the 49ers. Last year, Smith went to substance-abuse treatment, missing more than a month of games.
The charge of falsely reporting a bomb carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail via California law.
Smith has had plenty of issues with the law since joining San Francisco in 2011. On Jan. 28, 2012, Smith was arrested in Florida for Driving Under the Influence. Only five months later, Smith was stabbed at a party taking place in his home, although reports indicate Smith was trying to break a fight up. He was eventually charged in October with three counts of illegal possession of an assault weapon.
On Sept. 20, 2013, Smith was involved in a single-car wreck and charged with suspected DUI and possession of Marijuana. He would eventually check into rehab to get sober.
David Fucillo, editor of Niners Nation, says that it’s too early to speculate on whether or not the 49ers will pick up Smith’s fifth-year option, a team option added on the end of a rookie’s first four-year contract included in the new collective bargaining agreement.
Amidst the flurry of news, there was a small flurry of people asking how this would impact the 49ers decision to pick up the fifth year. The timing of this situation is not exactly ideal in that process, but it's also potentially too soon to tell how this will all play out. Without additional details, there is a very broad range of possible explanations for what happened at LAX Sunday afternoon. That range covers good and bad, so that makes it difficult to say with any certainty what this means for that option.
The 24-year-old linebacker out of Missouri is among the NFL's elite pass rushers. Smith has 42 sacks through his first three NFL seasons.
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