Hard to believe Detroit & Patriots knew nothing of Patricia allegations

Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia’s 1996 indictment for aggravated sexual assault — dismissed because the victim did “not feel she can face the pressures or stress of a trial” — is alarming for what it revealed about the NFL’s hiring practices. Patricia spent 14 years in the Patriots organization. Bill Belichick’s statement read: “The New England Patriots were not aware of the matter that recently came to light.”

Lions president Rod Wood’s first response to the Detroit News, which broke the story, was: “I don’t know anything about this.” Detroit’s brass later admitted Patricia had been “the subject of a standard pre-employment background check which did not disclose this issue” before the club had hired him in early February.

Patricia, 43, even said the issue “just has never been part of any process that I’ve been involved with” as far as job interviews. Imagine: a league with such a sprawling, omnipresent reach with organizations pleading ignorance to a matter that, since the story broke, has been simple for many media outlets to find quickly.

The fact is, it is absurd and hard to believe that NFL teams vet college kids so meticulously for the NFL Draft, often holding the smallest nugget of negative information against them, and that the league is motivated to conduct sweeping investigations into issues as trivial as deflated footballs. But a coach can rise through the league’s ranks without even a whiff of an issue this serious, despite the dismissal of the case.

And Wood’s suggestion in a recent ESPN story that the Lions would have had to break the law to find this information is absolutely ridiculous. I honestly can’t believe his comment:

“There might be ways for companies, teams in our case, to find information out about a prospective employee through other means than the legal means,” Wood told ESPN. “I guess if others wanted to do that, that’s their prerogative. I’m only in charge of what the Lions do, and I want to do it the right way.”

Now, the NFL says it will review the matter, and this story is far from over, and rightfully so, despite Patricia insisting “I was innocent then and I am innocent now.”

The Detroit News since has reported that the prosecution had interviewed five witnesses and obtained medical evidence from the alleged victim leading up to Patricia’ indictment by a Texas jury. And though the South Padre Island police department said it does not have a computerized record of the investigation, the department is sorting through old storage files for a paper record of the police report.

I have been asked several times in the last few days if the Giants were aware of Patricia’s 1996 indictment, given that he had interviewed with the Giants in January and was the leading candidate at one point to succeed Ben McAdoo before taking the Lions job. Here is my answer:

It is unlikely we will find out what the Giants did or did not know here, and it’s not fair in my opinion to speculate on what they did or did not know. Because they did not hire Patricia; the Lions did. Plus, hypothetically, if the Giants had convinced Patricia to take the job and didn’t know yet, they would have had about three additional weeks to vet him and do more homework before officially hiring him after the Feb. 4 Super Bowl. They could have found out then.

All I know for sure is that it isn’t acceptable that the Patriots and Lions did not know; these organizations cannot be beyond reproach. And I am especially disgusted with Detroit ownership and management mentioning in their official statement: “Matt was 21 at the time and on spring break in Texas.” The implication that these are mitigating factors is chilling, and frankly, this type of rationale implicates guilt more than innocence.

FIELD TO COURT

Starting Monday, football again will be a footnote for the Giants. The memorabilia fraud case against Eli Manning and the Giants is going to trial in the Superior Court of New Jersey’s civil division beginning Monday in Hackensack at the Bergen County Courthouse. And once again Manning’s and the organization’s integrity will be on the line in a lawsuit that has dragged on since its initial filing in Jan. 29, 2014.

A summary judgment issued in mid-April by Superior Court judge James DeLuca threw out some of the charges brought by plaintiffs Eric Inselberg, Michael Jakab and Sean Godown against Manning, the Giants, Giants employees and Steiner Sports Memorabilia.

But DeLuca still sent the case to trial with the possibility that Manning, the Giants and Steiner all could be liable for fraud based primarily on allegations two helmets Manning and Steiner portrayed as “game-used” were counterfeit.

And a new Superior Court judge, Charles Powers, will be replacing DeLuca on the case. And while a court official confirmed DeLuca was off the case simply because he is being moved out of the court’s civil division in a routine rotation of judges, it’s significant to note that the plaintiffs’ attorneys had asked DeLuca to step down twice based on his Giants fandom and ownership of two Giants personal seat licenses — a request DeLuca had denied both times.

DeLuca had suspended the trial indefinitely last June, but now a sixperson jury selection is scheduled to occur on Wednesday, and barring a last-minute settlement, this case finally will proceed to trial.

Last spring, the case reentered the spotlight with a bang when the plaintiffs’ attorneys discovered an email from Manning to Giants equipment director Joe Skiba on April 27, 2010, in which Manning had asked for “2 helmets that can pass as game used.”

An “angry” and emotional Manning stepped out at Quest Diagnostics Training Center last April in light of the new details and said he has “nothing to hide” and has “done nothing wrong.” But while Manning’s attorneys debated the interpretation of the key “game used” phrase in filings, they did not provide evidence that definitively cleared him.

Steiner, also being accused of misrepresenting the helmets, remains on trial, as do the Giants, who could be found liable for fraud based on negligent supervision of Manning after being warned of the allegations and behavior in 2011.

YOU’RE JOSHING, RIGHT?

Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels says: “I definitely want to be a head coach again.” Unless McDaniels succeeds Belichick in New England, though, how exactly does he expect another team’s GM to take him seriously after pulling the rug out so badly on the Colts’ Chris Ballard this offseason? That’ll be a difficult betrayal to forget.