Offseason doesn’t get any easier for Cardinals after McDonough allegations
The Arizona Cardinals haven’t had a nice, quiet offseason in quite a few years. Last year, the Kyler Murray contract drama attracted a lot of unwanted national attention to the team in the desert. This year, a new coach and general manager are being forced to navigate the turbulent waters of an atrocious NFLPA report card and now the request for arbitration from former VP of Player Personnel, Terry McDonough.
McDonough made several claims in his request that point to a negative/toxic work environment created by team owner Michael Bidwill. He also made claims about an attempt to circumvent the team-issued punishment of then GM Steve Keim who had been suspended by the team for a DUI in 2018.
Former Cardinals exec Terry McDonough filed an arbitration claim today to Roger Goodell against Cardinals’ owner Michael Bidwell, alleging cheating, discrimination and harassment. Bidwill said the claims are baseless.https://t.co/MShAKIGk5M
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 4, 2023
Those allegations were then followed this week by another story from former COO Ron Minegar about work conditions in the Arizona Cardinals facility.
A communication between Minegar and Bidwill doesn’t confirm misconduct but confirms Bidwill’s negativity in the workplace. https://t.co/SXxtFD5M4a
— TheCardsWire (@Cards_Wire) April 11, 2023
Aarron Van Buren
Over the past five years, we have seen the disintegration of an NFL franchise. Starting with the suspension of Steve Keim and Patrick Peterson for their own respective reasons, there has been little to be hopeful for since then. While we can talk X’s and O’s until the cows come home (or insert favorite animal here). The real issue lies in the front office, and with the owner.
Keim and Michael Bidwill could be the duo that forever brands the Arizona Cardinals with a scarlet letter. Bidwill has done nothing to improve upon his father’s legacy, which was known for Mr.Krabs-like greed. Let’s not forget that this is the same duo who failed to get Larry Fitzgerald any significant help at the quarterback position until it was the Twilight of his career.
Keim also drafted an Arizona Cardinals all-time bust in Haason Reddick and Josh Rosen instead of drafting Josh Allen, Pat Mahomes and/or Deshaun Watson (pre-off the field issues).
So these allegations or whatever has reportedly happened in this complaint/letter by Terry McDonough are shocking, but when there is a broader scope applied it may not be all that surprising. This is the same franchise that botched Larry Fitzgerald’s final years. Fitzgerald just went up and ghosted out into his retirement, even though his paperwork has been submitted. Yes, he did tell Darren Urban years ago he’d go quietly, but you’d be oblivious to not acknowledge how bad the 2016-18 seasons had to have had an impact on his desire to play going forward.
On a recent episode of Pro Football Talk with Cris Simms and Mike Florio, Florio lit up the Cardinals’ response to these allegations. Florio chastised the fact that the Cardinals took a work issue and made it personal against McDonough- dare I say the Cardinals essentially doxxed him. Florio also questioned that if these personal issues were big enough, why did he retain his position for so long?
Now McDonough has had some life challenges that he’s been open about in the past, including a 2019 story about how he served jail time while in high school for what was basically a drunk driving crash where he hit a telephone pole, ejecting the friends in his car. One of his friends sadly died from the injuries she sustained.
And the response by the Cardinals tells us everything. To delve further into one’s own personal struggles with that kind of statement from a professional organization is incredibly distasteful.
The fact that the HR/legal team came out with such a firery response tends to track historically that some of these alleged events/behaviors took place.
One doesn’t even need to be at the NFL level to understand this- we’ve all had instances where we ask someone a critical question and they end up blowing up in their response – which takes that specific conversation further away from the original purpose.
Bidwill’s lack of improvement in many areas on the “report card” that the NFLPA released earlier this year has taken this franchise to the absolute bottom of the league. Additionally, the social media team has made questionable decisions by not owning up after losses on Twitter and Facebook. Not to mention going all out on cheesy, borderline cringey anime which ironically correlated with a lot of lost games. Finally, remember when the social media team would fire back at the fans for asking about new uniforms leading into the 2021 season?
The Cardinals have been on a downward spiral for a while. It’s why the team’s failed to keep stars around. Tyrann Mathieu, Calais Campbell are some of the more popular names that’ve left and talked openly about what went down in Arizona. Just look at Patrick Peterson’s anger towards Keim and Bidwill. But what if Peterson and those who’ve left before him were desperately trying to signal that something was wrong?
In the end, I will let the investigation run its course. Whatever comes about should give us more insight into what actually happened. If this ultimately ends up with the Cardinals being sold, it will be the best thing that ever happened to the Cardinals.
Joe Comeau
This situation is… tough.
On one hand, Michael Bidwill’s reputation with the fan base has been, at best, uneven. Most fans felt that his tenure had been (at least up to now) an improvement over that of his father. But his reputation for pinching pennies and micromanaging has been amplified since the damning NFLPA report card aimed a spotlight square upon the organization’s miserly ways. Many fans have been quick to believe McDonough’s claims, simply because of their disposition toward Bidwill.
On the other hand, McDonough is alleged to have a difficult history of his own, as was outlined in a response crafted for the Cardinals by a public relations firm. The response paints an image of an employee with a history of erratic and unhinged behavior. While it is prudent to question the claims made about McDonough, it seems plausible that there is at least some measure of fire present amidst McDonough’s smoldering history.
And, yet, at the same time, I have seen firsthand in my own professional life how details can be taken out of context and manipulated in order to gaslight. Moreover, the detailed response published on behalf of the Cardinals is a bad look in and of itself. There is a reason that most organizations respond to these kinds of situations with boring, nondescript responses like “We are disappointed by these baseless claims and are confident that they will be shown to be false.” Instead, the Cardinals have – once again – drawn criticism by overthinking things.
Getting back to the accusations, at present, I think the truth is somewhere between the two stories we are hearing. It might not be directly in the middle – one side may be closer to the truth than the other – but I doubt that either side has completely clean hands.
What I do feel fairly certain about, is that this situation is unlikely to result in a change of team ownership. While the Dan Snyder situation has illustrated that the league is willing to force out a problematic owner (albeit, under extreme circumstances), there are a few reasons why it is unlikely we will see the same outcome with the Cardinals.
The first is that Dan Snyder allegedly has an adversarial relationship with the other owners. This includes allegations that he threatened to “take down” the rest of the league owners if he were forced to sell. Conversely, Michael Bidwill is generally respected among his peers, and has taken a leadership role in various committees and league initiatives.
The second reason is that the Dan Snyder situation involved a damning log of emails that was unearthed as part of the larger Jon Gruden investigation. While it’s possible that something of this sort might be uncovered, thus far this does not appear to be the case.
Finally, as much as the league owners wanted Dan Snyder out, they are uneasy about the precedent set by the move. Team owners do not want to live in a world where any scandal will push them out. Most (if not all) powerful people have skeletons in their closets, and they are not eager to set a low bar for their own removal. Whether it’s right or wrong, league owners are likely to push back against any effort to push to oust the Bidwills – unless the details become so damning that they have no choice.
Marcos Labrada
Oh boy, just when we are looking forward to moving ahead into the draft we seem like we can’t catch a break. With the news about the possibility of the Cardinals releasing DeAndre Hopkins, to the negative report card from the NFLPA, I know we need a break.
I have learned throughout the years that regardless of how this turns out, I think Michael needs to step down as team president. Just the fact that the Cardinals in the past 2 years have been a negative talking point for local and national media is egregious. Franchises that have owners that place themselves as team president and are as involved as the way Michael is, usually don’t find success. The reasoning comes down to being too controlling, billionaires are billionaires after all, its an investment and they want their returns. In the Cardinals case, unfortunately, the Cardinals have belonged to the Bidwills for decades, so any case of Michael selling the team is a pipe dream.
It’s enough that Steve Keim has been given the benefit of the doubt by the owner for so many years but it makes sense that Keim was able to be around for so long. I knew when Bidwill cast his “wide net” it would pull in first-timers who would jump at the chance to get their foot in the door. The last 5 Cardinals coaches have been first-time HC’s and that’s not by accident, that’s by design. The stipulation to keep Vance as the defensive coordinator after Bidwill handed out contracts to everyone of note last year, pretty much almost caused VJ to lose his opportunity to coach elsewhere, keeping him hostage was unprofessional.
We have to wait for more evidence and proof to come forward but after the allegations were made, people who were no longer part of the organization, whether players or staff members, acted in a way of being relieved that someone spoke up finally.
No matter the circumstance I think we need to stay on course in removing Bidwill as team president, only public pressure and a united message can achieve such a task.
Albert Delgado Jr.
Man, what else can I say? It seems like the Cardinals can’t catch a break from all negativity surrounding this team. First, the NFLPA report cards. Second, the training facilities.
Now this scandal is huge black for this franchise when it seem like they were already changing the culture.
Right now the best thing that Michael Bidwill could do as owner of this team is step down as team president and look for somebody else to run the day-to-day operations for the franchise.
There’s no better example of that than the Phoenix Suns. Look how quickly president of basketball operations and general manager James Jones and coach Monty Williams change the culture to make them contenders in two years.
In conclusion, as Cardinals fans we deserve better. I also hope that Monti Ossenfort and coach Jonathan Gannon can change the fortune of this franchise.
Jackie Samaniego
The Terry McDonough allegations do not come as a surprise. I, like many others, have suspected Bidwill of harvesting a bad culture. The extent of the allegations, however, is quite scathing.
At this time, there is no real merit to the allegations but Arizona sports fans have seen this before. When accusations against former Suns owner Robert Sarver came out, it triggered a domino effect. The testimonies of anonymous employees were enough to force Sarver to sell the team.
If there are real victims out there this could signal them to come forward. The way Bidwill chose to respond was also baffling but on brand. He chose to attack the character of McDonough and wrote him off as unhinged. That response is on the same level of ineptitude that we’ve seen from Bidwill in the past. From extending a failing coach and GM to adding and removing a bizarre study clause in Murry’s contract, and now this. Let’s not forget the incident in Mexico City that led to the firing and arbitration from Sean Kugler.
To add a cherry on top to the whole mess, it has been recently announced that the Cardinals will be getting new uniforms, something fans have been begging for loudly for years. The move seems like a big PR stunt to deflect on what is happening. We have heard grumblings from past players and employees, perhaps we will be hearing more in the near future.
Berenice Talavera-Go
The Cardinals have been so unnecessarily dramatic recently and for what? We are constantly in the bottom of the standings and no one ever has anything good to say about the organization as a whole.
It’s gotten to the point that after Kyler’s study clause, the firing of a coach after an incident in Mexico, the embarrassingly low NFLPA score, the accusations Bidwill faces do not surprise me. Do not get me wrong, they are horrible accusations and I hope they are not true and if they are, that those directly affected receive some sort of relief soon. But at this point, one has to wonder, what is really going on in that building?
Keim was kept in control after so many failed drafts and overall failure to construct a successful roster that can compete yearlong. There has been a turnover on coaches, staff and even players have few good things to say about their time with the team.
I just hope that this all gets cleared up soon. Whether it’s a change in ownership or whatever it may be, I’m ready for the future with our new General Manager and Coach.
