BEREA, Ohio - Cleveland Browns rookie wide receiver Antonio Callaway said his positive drug test at this year's scouting combine was the result of a dilute sample and that he's taking steps to put his troubled past behind him.
"I had a diluted sample," Callaway, the Browns' fourth-round pick in last week's NFL draft, said between workouts at the team's rookie minicamp Saturday. "I didn't intentionally do it, but I take responsibility for my test. That was a wake-up call, but like I've said, day by day I'm still getting better as a person, as a player, as a man, as a father. I've got a daughter. She's going to be 3 months old next week."
Callaway was seen by many as a talented enough player to be drafted in the early rounds, but he fell to the fourth because of significant off-field concerns. He was suspended from the Florida Gators football team for all of 2017 for allegedly using stolen credit card information to fund bookstore accounts. He was cited after a traffic stop in May 2017 for misdemeanor marijuana possession and possession of drug equipment. And he was cleared of sexual assault allegations by a Title IX hearing officer in August 2016 after his accuser and her witnesses boycotted the hearing because the hearing officer was a Gators football booster.
"I was young, that's all. Immature," Callaway said of his list of transgressions. "I was just living in the moment. I knew I had to grow and learn from my mistakes. When I got suspended, I didn't think it would cost me the NFL. I just knew that it would hurt. Because I know my talent. I'm pretty good at football."
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, also from Miami, reached out to Callaway on Twitter recently and has been spending time working out with him and trying to help him prepare for life in the NFL.
"Basically, he's just been mentoring me, telling me I've got too much talent to let it go to waste," Callaway said of Brown. "Where we're from in Miami, Florida, a lot of people barely make it out. I'm one of the few to."
Callaway said he and his four younger sisters were raised by their mother in a very tough part of Miami.
"It's hard, where I'm from. It's hard. The worst of the worst," Callaway said. "Killings, drugs, you name it, I've seen it, and at a young age. Growing up, I said I didn't want that life, so I just stuck with football."