The Arizona Cardinals saw their arbitration case filed by former team executive Terry McDonough end with a ruling ordering them to pay McDonough $3 million for defamatory comments they made about him after he filed the grievance.
That book is closed on the case, but now many wonder if the NFL will dole out any punishment for the Cardinals.
After all, the event that more or less began the events leading to McDonough’s grievance was a scheme to cheat in a way.
When Steve Keim, then the general manager, was suspended by the team in 2018 following is arrest and guilty plea for extreme DUI, a time in which he was to have zero contact with the team, McDonough alleges that burner phones were used to maintain contact with Keim.
He claimed that when he voiced his opposition and discomfort for it, owner Michael Bidwill became very angry with him.
However, the team never denied the existence of those burner phones. In the Cardinals’ response, Bidwill did not know about it and, when he did, he shut it down immediately.
During arbitration, according to Dan Bickley for Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, Keim testified that the burner phones were actually McDonough’s idea.
That’s where things get tricky.
The league did not issue the suspension. Per the team, Bidwill shut down things once he was aware of it, so, at least in the eyes of the league, the team proactively punished Keim for driving drunk and then shut down a scheme to, in essence, cheat the suspension.
It wasn’t a salary cap violation or tampering. It wasn’t videotaping opponents’ practices. It wasn’t bounties for injuring players. It wasn’t deflating balls in secret.
Could the league fine the team? Sure. But in a he said, he said battle of claims between the team and McDonough where his original claims were all dismissed, it would make it easy for the league to do nothing.
It can rest on the perception that Bidwill didn’t do anything wrong and even shut down the scheme, casting the best possible light on one of the league’s owners.
If you think it is certain the Cardinals will lose draft picks over this, you might be surprised. It certainly isn’t a guarantee.
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