Two days after being cut by the Dallas Cowboys and one day after being cleared in a petty larceny charge, Lucky Whitehead has found his new team, NBC Sports reports.
Whitehead was claimed on waivers by the Jets Wednesday.
"The move makes some sense, as Whitehead is both young and cheap, two qualities the Jets are looking for in this rebuilding season: The 25-year-old Whitehead is playing for the league-minimum salary on the contract he signed as an undrafted rookie in 2015," according to NBC Sports.
Whitehead was released Monday after police in Prince William County Virginia said he'd missed a court appearance for a petty theft charge. Whitehead maintained his innocence and his agent said it was a case of mistaken identity.
Still, the Cowboys cut him anyway with head coach Jason Garrett saying he hoped the decision to release Whitehead was "a little bit of a wakeup call to handle these situations the right way."
Come Tuesday, police in Virginia said there had been a mistake and that the person they detained in the theft case was not the NFL player. That man, they said, had no ID, but provided them with a name, birthday and Social Security number for Rodney Darnell Whitehead, Jr. Police even compared a DMV photo with the person they'd detained and cited. It wasn't until Tuesday that they said the person they detained provided them with false identification and that it wasn't the NFL player.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, stood pat on their decision to cut Whitehead and issued no apology. During an odd news conference Tuesday, when questioned about Whitehead, Garrett robotically repeated over and over that the organization made a decision in the best interest of the team and was standing by it.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"With the Jets, Whitehead will compete for a roster spot as both a receiver and a return man. He probably has a better chance of making the 53-man roster in New York than he did in Dallas, so getting waived at the start of camp — rather than at the end of the preseason — may turn out to be a lucky break for Whitehead," NBC Sports said.
