Philadelphia Eagles star Nolan Smith Jr. was arrested last week on charges of speeding and reckless driving in Georgia.
The Super Bowl champion, who played for the Georgia Bulldogs throughout his college career, was allegedly caught driving 137mph in a 70mph zone, according to ESPN.
The incident involving the 25-year-old is said to have taken place along an interstate at 10:41pm on Friday, May 15.
The linebacker was jailed by the Twiggs County Sheriff’s office but made bond and was quickly released from jail not long after the arrest.
When reports first emerged about Smith’s arrest, fans took to social media to claim they thought his mugshot was AI. It was only confirmed to be real, first by The Georgia Gazette, on Wednesday night.
Smith was a first-round pick by the Eagles in the 2023 NFL Draft after winning two national championships with the Bulldogs in 2021 and 2022.
Eagles star Nolan Smith Jr. was arrested last week on charges of speeding and reckless driving
The Super Bowl champion was caught driving 137mph in a 70mph zone, according to ESPN
He has played 45 games across his first three seasons in Philadelphia, completing 10.5 sacks in that time.
At the end of the 2024 season, Smith helped the Eagles to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
Smith’s arrest is the latest driving controversy to hit the Bulldogs program. The team has had multiple incidents of stars driving at excessive years in recent years.
Since winning national titles at the end of the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Bulldogs players have been arrested no fewer than 30 times, according to USA Today.
The situation was at its worst between January 2023 and July 2024, when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Georgia players were involved in 24 driving-related incidents.
It was in January of 2023, while the Bulldogs were celebrating their second straight national title, that offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy were killed in a road-racing crash.
LeCroy had allegedly been racing future Philadelphia Eagles star and Super Bowl champion, Jalen Carter, in the moments before the crash.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has previously maintained that he and his colleagues are working to solve this problem, but last year rejected the idea that different team policies could have prevented the fatalities.
‘No policy or lack thereof policy caused this accident,’ Smart told the Banner-Herald in 2023.
Georgia has gained notoriety for driving arrests since the deaths of Devin Willock (L) and Chandler LeCroy (R) during a road racing incident after celebrating the 2022 national title
Eagles star Jalen Carter was driving the other car when LeCroy crashed in January of 2023
Earlier this month, Ja’Marley Riddle, a transfer from East Carolina, was spotted by an undercover officer driving his red Dodge Durango at a high rate of speed, according to an incident report first published by Brunswick, Georgia’s WGIG FM.
‘[Riddle] was weaving in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed (around 95 miles per hour), causing a hazard to pedestrians on the roadway,’ read the incident report.
The defensive back from Kingsland, Georgia was quickly pulled over on I-95 in Brunswick. When speaking to Glynn County Police, Riddle seemed nervous according to officers, who noted the smell of marijuana.
Police say he politely agreed to let them search his vehicle, which led them to discover packaging containing both marijuana and THC vapes. Officers then placed him under arrest without any resistance.
He now faces felony drug charges and a speeding misdemeanor.
Riddle was expected to compete for a starting job in the Bulldogs secondary after recording three interceptions as both a freshman and sophomore at East Carolina. The 19-year-old has reportedly been limited in spring practices due to a leg injury.
Georgia spokespeople have issued a statement on his arrest.
‘We are aware of the charges and are actively gathering additional information,’ read that statement. ‘As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not be providing further comment at this time.’
