Dolphins linebacker Lawrence Timmons shocked his new team by disappearing from the team hotel last Saturday night ahead of the season opener in Los Angeles, prompting an indefinite suspension from the club and casting his future in Miami in doubt. However, Timmons, who spent his entire career with the Steelers before signing a free-agent contract with Miami in the offseason, began acting erratically before the season began.
With the Dolphins on an impromptu Week 1 bye due to the approaching Hurricane Irma, Timmons showed up, unannounced, at Steelers practice two weeks ago, their final Friday practice before opening the season that Sunday in Cleveland. According to several sources, Timmons was allowed into the team facility and watched at least part of practice from the sidelines.
Most players and team officials had no idea Timmons would be going to their practice, though a source said he did inform a few coaches of his desire to visit the Steelers. Mike Tomlin was aware but the front office was not, and his presence did seem odd to many given his status with the Dolphins
Sources said he told former Steelers teammates he wanted to be back in Pittsburgh and said things along of the lines of it was a mistake to have ever left. He caught former teammates, coaches and Steelers officials off guard by his presence there as an under-contract player to another team, but still no one expected what came next.
Timmons did report to California the following Monday, where the Dolphins were practicing all week ahead of their Week 2 game at the Chargers, but then went missing from the team hotel that Saturday evening and into Sunday morning. Sources said when Timmons was tracked down at the airport he told law enforcement that he was trying to get home to Pittsburgh and that he appeared disoriented. Los Angeles police had in fact contacted Pittsburgh police in their efforts to originally locate Timmons, sources said, with the Dolphins believing at one point he may have already returned to Pennsylvania, where his child lives.
Dolphins officials are not putting a timeline on Timmons' suspension, but I'm told it will last beyond this week and it is possible Timmons never plays a game for the team. The NFLPA is mulling its options for a grievance, sources said, and the maximum Timmons can be suspended for conduct detrimental to the team is four games, per the CBA.
