Within any situation in which multiple lawyers and outside public relations firms are involved—the NFL’s equivalent to a Warren Zevon song—there is typically a salacious version of events presented by the accusatory attorneys and an indignant response from the accused, as if what’s been presented is so entirely untrue it’s barely worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars the team likely spent crafting the perfect defense to it.
In the middle? Often what really happened.
In case you don’t know the latest controversy I’m referring to, on Tuesday, ESPN reported former Cardinals executive Terry McDonough is suing the franchise for stalling his career progress. He says owner Michael Bidwill was abrasive toward pregnant employees, “created an environment of fear for minority employees” and directed a cheating scandal in which everyone was supplied with burner phones to communicate with suspended general manager Steve Keim (Keim missed a little more than a month for an extreme DUI). The accusing party also says Bidwill intercepted the results of a damning survey to make the Cardinals’ workplace seem a bit less like working in an NFL coal mine.
