Roosters star Brandon Smith on true cost of white powder scandal
The Roosters hooker was in tears as he revealed the true cost of being caught up in an infamous white powder video scandal.
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Emotional Roosters hooker Brandon Smith has opened up about the true cost of the infamous “white powder” scandal he became embroiled in three years ago.
A member of the Melbourne Storm at the time, Smith and then-teammates Cameron Munster and Chris Lewis were seen in a video shot shortly after the team was knocked out of the 2021 finals series by the Panthers on September 25.
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Small packets of a white powder understood to be cocaine are visible in the video, which was uploaded to social media and took place during the Covid pandemic, and led to fines and a one-game suspension for all three.
Speaking on the Keegan and Company podcast with former Titans and Eels second-rower Keegan Hipgrave that was published on Sunday, 27-year-old Smith revealed intimate details of the scandal and its aftermath.
The news of the video dropped right as the Dally M Medal awards night was getting underway, an event Smith attended with his mother and took out hooker of the year.
“As we’re walking out of the hotel bro, we get this message from the general manager of the Storm saying this video is about to go viral and there’s a video of me in front of the table doing stuff I shouldn’t have been doing,” Smith said in the video you can see above.
“I was like ‘I’m so sorry mum, I’m so sorry’.
“It sucked, bro, it sucked. But not for me. It sucked for my mum – I wanted her to enjoy her f**king night and then bro what really f**king hit home was that my niece and my nephew were getting bullied at school because of something I did.
“You know I f**king did that and hearing that from my brother and just seeing that s**t bro, that was definitely something that hurt my heart bad.”
Smith is no stranger to controversy during his career, forced to apologise in the past for declaring the Storm had a massive drinking culture, among other indiscretions.
He spent six years at the Storm before joining the Sydney Roosters ahead of the 2023 season, copping more flak after he declared his desire to win a premiership with the Tricolours while still with Melbourne.
Yet the fallout to the white powder scandal apparently gave him a new appreciation of how damaging his actions can be.
“You being an idiot caused so much grief to your family and your loved ones … like letting them down is the ultimate fear for me, and when it effects the people around you, that’s when it really hits home,” he said.
“And all I have for that is just if anyone feels like they’re going to make the wrong decision at the time, it’s not you you’ve got to think about, it’s the consequences you’ve got to face, it’s the consequences everyone around you has to face.
“That’s the one that hurts the most.”
Originally published as Roosters star Brandon Smith on true cost of white powder scandal
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