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Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster, who is a native of Auburn, and Vanderbilt linebacker Zach Cunningham of Pinson, could both be drafted in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft.

The pasts and futures of two players in the NFL Draft are intertwined like Alabama kudzu.

Vanderbilt's Zach Cunningham has been passed over three times in his career for Alabama's Reuben Foster. It could happen a fourth time in the first round of the NFL Draft, but Foster has given NFL executives reasons to question his character.

If Foster falls in the draft, Cunningham could benefit. Whatever happens, NFL executives and fans likely will be comparing both players throughout their careers. As it happens, that's been the case in Alabama for the past four years. Cunningham is from the Birmingham suburb of Pinson and chose Vanderbilt in large part because Foster, a native of Auburn, couldn't decide on his hometown team or Alabama until National Signing Day in 2013.

Foster's decisions have been indirectly affecting Cunningham for years. The NFL Draft will be just another chapter in their oddly related lives.

Cunningham and Foster are among the top interior linebacker prospects entering the 2017 NFL Draft. They can play the same position and they're both incredible football players. Beyond that, the reputations they have cultivated over the past few months couldn't be any more different.

Is the NFL really trying to clean up its image, or is all that just lip service? Where Cunningham is drafted in relation to Foster will be a good indicator of the truth.

Choosing savagery over cerebral is the preferred business model in the brutal world of the NFL, and that's not changing. What has changed, however, is the public image of America's favorite sport. It has deteriorated. Given the current climate of the league, are NFL executives placing more value on character in this draft? Cunningham vs. Foster could set the tone.

The Dick Butkus Award winner in 2016, Foster has spent the last few months damaging his reputation with questionable decisions. First there was the incident with a hospital employee during the NFL combine, and later it was revealed that he tested positive for a diluted urine sample.

There is no denying Foster has the talent and ability to reshape an NFL defense. If he goes in the first round, though, teams will be taking a chance on drafting a player with question marks.

Cunningham, meanwhile, has been tagged with an entirely different set of doubts. Teams have questioned his toughness. Is he dedicated enough to football? Is he too thoughtful for this game of cold ruthlessness? During their research on Cunningham, NFL personnel called Cunningham's high school coach, Matt Glover, and asked why Cunningham was quiet during interviews.

"He is a real quiet kid," Glover said. "That's just Zach. He has always been a real quiet kid. He has never really been boisterous. He was never a Facebook guy or a Twitter guy. He wasn't none of that in high school. He just showed up and did his job and went home and kept good grades."

For any other job, those personality traits would be highly desired by an employer. That's not the NFL, though. Or at least that's the image the league has cultivated for itself.

So, to explain Cunningham's toughness to NFL personnel types, Glover found himself repeating a story of the time the best player he has ever coached played an entire game after a concussion without complaint or drop in performance.

In the NFL, that's the stuff of winners.

That's the sad truth of pro football. Despite what Roger Goodell might say, the NFL remains a league that wants linebackers to play through concussions. Cunningham did that in his last high school football game, and finished with 16 tackles.

It was a second round playoff game between Cunningham's Pinson Valley and Muscle Shoals. Muscle Shoals devised a plan on the first play the game, says Glover, to knock Cunningham out of action. After the ball was snapped, a receiver ran across the field and cracked Cunningham from behind.

"I didn't know it at the time, but when we went back and watched the film, he had a concussion," Glover said. "It knocked him woozy. He ended up having like 16 tackles that game and I asked him if he remembered anything and he said, 'I don't remember anything.' So, he just did that off instinct."

Stories like that play well when it comes to the NFL Draft.

Will Cunningham's thoughtful demeanor keep him from rising above Foster, and his questions of character? The NFL values brutality above all things, and Foster plays with a reckless abandon that coaches salivate over. It has shaped not only Foster's career, but also Cunningham's.

Foster was chosen over Cunningham for the Under Armour All-American Game their senior seasons, and later that year Auburn withheld a scholarship offer to Cunningham with the hopes of signing Foster.

Cunningham was driving to Vanderbilt for an official visit when he learned that Auburn was only taking three linebackers with the 2013 class, and the Tigers' coaches were saving a spot for Foster. Cunningham was the odd man out, so instead of taking his chances on signing day, he made the smart decision and committed to Vandy.

Foster snubbed Auburn and chose Alabama. The history between Cunningham and Auburn made his stellar performance against the Tigers last season all the sweeter. His leaping play on special teams to block an Auburn field goal was arguably the SEC's play of the year. He finished that game with nine tackles.

Later in the year, Foster was chosen for the Butkus Award over Cunningham despite Cunningham leading the SEC with 125 tackles. Foster's accomplishments and otherworldly plays have been well documented. Both are excellent players who have shown advanced intelligence on a football field. Off-the-field decisions of one player, though, might determine where both go in the draft.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for Alabama Media Group. He's on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.