Getty Image / Chris Coduto
On Tuesday, things turned south for the Arizona Cardinals, as a hammer was dropped about the team’s owner, Michael Bidwill.
This isn’t a great look for the NFL right now, especially with everything going on with Dan Snyder and the Washington Commanders.
According to Adam Schefter, former Cardinals executive, “Terry McDonough filed an arbitration claim today to Roger Goodell against Cardinals’ owner Michael Bidwell, alleging cheating, discrimination, and harassment.”
McDonough claims that Bidwill allegedly planned, “to use burner phones to communicate with former Arizona general manager Steve Keim while Keim was serving a five-week suspension after pleading guilty to extreme DUI in Arizona.”
In fact, the former Cardinals executive claims he still has the phone in question, per ESPN.
Additionally, Schefter reports that “McDonough’s objection to the illicit burner phone scheme, Bidwill cursed at, berated, and formally reprimanded McDonough, and ultimately demoted him — irrevocably damaging the trajectory of McDonough’s 34-year career in the National Football League. Bidwill also subjected McDonough to bullying, mocking, harassing, and abusive behavior.”
The Cardinals organization denied Terry McDonough’s allegations. Arizona states McDonough’s “claims he has made in an arbitration filing are wildly false, reckless, and an opportunistic ploy for financial gain.”
ESPN reports that “the Cardinals have 20 days to respond to McDonough’s claims under the NFL’s dispute resolution procedural guidelines.”
As you can imagine, football fans couldn’t help but react to this breaking news either. They specifically poke fun at the Cardinals’ cheating allegations.
They must really suck at cheating if that’s what they’ve been doing 🤣
— Dylan cooper (@dcoop1211) April 4, 2023
Cardinals fans are in turmoil.
Wow we cheated so much we ended up with the 3rd overall pick! What a great organization to be a fan of 😃
— josh (@jjjjosh8) April 4, 2023
The Cleveland Browns would like a word (sorry for the stray, Browns fans).
Cardinals might be the worst run organization of all time
— reed (@reedm_33) April 4, 2023
The outcome of this situation is currently unclear, as previously stated, the Cardinals have 20 days to respond to Terry McDonough’s claims.
Until then, Arizona will be a team to closely monitor.