MichiganCardinal

It's a serious charge but it's definitely not a flee the country kind of charge. He may have some sort of prior conviction. The picture released by the Sheriff's Office looked like a mugshot, though it may have been a DMV picture. It's hard to say, but at least in Michigan, he'd still probably just be looking at a lengthy probation sentence for a first offense with something like this. And that's if he's convicted. DV charges are notoriously difficult to prosecute, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that a less-than cooperative victim would lead to a lesser charge being offered, like simple DV, which is a misdemeanor. Despite saying all that, it's not really fair to speculate. In the words of John U Bacon, no one knows anything...... But he's got to turn himself in.

I don't know. I think in a world where Sutton's attorney releases a public statement on Wednesday afternoon disputing him having been contacted by police and claiming innocence, he deserves his day in court. That ship has sailed by now, but I worry of snap judgements costing players millions and permanently ruining their reputations based solely on accusations. Trevor Bauer's case kind of speaks to this.

I'm not sure they had more info. The issue may have been they didn't have more information than the general public. If they called him and he didn't answer, and then they called his agent and he hadn't heard from Sutton either.... at some point, you have to draw a line. "If he doesn't call us by tomorrow morning, we are going to have no choice but to release him and void the deal for violating the contract. Try to get him to contact us." Plausible deniability that he's got a felony warrant goes out the window after the entire world finds out. The day comes and goes and still no contact? Still hasn't turned himself in? Leave them with no choice really.

There's the Commissioner's Exempt List, which kind of works in this way. It effectively serves as paid administrative leave.

Pistons entire roster was effectively MIA for about 50 games if that counts.

This is a good find. It's basically what I've been looking for the last few days. The TLDR looks like that the Lions at the moment are on the hook for a $12.6MM cap hit this year and a $6.5MM cap hit next year, but that they've appealed to the NFL for relief based on Sutton's violations of the player conduct agreement, which could reduce those figures to $2.1MM this year and $6.5MM next; but that's not the case until the NFL rules, which is on their schedule not ours. And to get the $8.6MM would require a breach of contract lawsuit. Which could take years, but of course if Sutton is as averse to the civil court system as he is the criminal court system, maybe he just won't show up.

I almost typed a nearly identical message, but backed out..... I'm glad it was written. 😆

If I ignore the very real and very personal aspect of this for a moment, this is still a better situation than a season-ending training camp injury. There is time to recover from this. Free agency is still open, as are trades. $4MM isn't a ton of money, but it's money we didn't expect to have. If our initial offer to Gilmore wasn't enough for instance, now we have $4MM to add to it. Sutton was probably our CB2 to enter the season. Options are aplenty to replace him. But I still hope he's okay.

I'm worried about both. His release has given me some resolution about his status with the Lions, but I'm still wondering what the next steps are. Gilmore would make sense, so would Sneed if those talks were had prior to all this mess occurring. At the same time, I really do hope we hear something from him or his camp soon. His world is coming crashing down. I'm close to some people who have been alleged of similar things and these things don't happen in a vacuum. I'm not by any means excusing the allegations, but it would be disingenuous to think that this doesn't happen without CTE, or upbringing, or childhood trauma, or innumerable other contributing factors. No one wakes up one day and decides to be an abuser.

I think they would have held onto him if they were concerned about the cap implications. I'm pretty certain he's voided his contract and that cap relief can be sought if needed. I hope he's okay though. He's alleged to have committed some pretty awful things, which he should face the law for, but he's still a human whose life is collapsing before the world's eyes.

I don't want this to wander into the political section, but generally speaking I do not think that a police statement alleging someone of evading police should correlate to someone losing their right to due process. I do think he needs to turn himself in by tomorrow morning if he wants people to give him any benefit of the doubt about the allegation of fleeing.

I'll care for at least two or three days until Houston gets inexplicably upset and my bracket is busted.

I know what the Lions didn’t do today.

I do hope he’s okay. I take it that his family would have come out and changed the narrative by now if he was truly missing. I suspect he’s spoken to a lawyer by now and will turn himself in for arraignment tomorrow or Friday.

The mental attributes that go into someone hiding from prosecution are not usually 100% conscious. The infantile response in the amygdala of fight/flight - or more basically, "if I just hide from the scary thing it will go away" - doesn't really go away as we get older, it just doesn't present itself in the same ways. Usually someone with a warrant who refuses to turn themselves in won't come out and say (even to themselves) "I am wanted and therefore I will hide", it's more a willful (but unconscious) indifference and unrealistic desire that if I just ignore these calls (and presumably voicemails), they'll eventually just go away. It often requires someone with all the necessary knowledge to infuse that errant thinking with direct logic ("no this is not just going away") to get them to address it.

The mandatory moment of silence must be four hours.

Posted for context: Maximum penalties for a third-degree felony is five years in prison, but the ultimate sentence if convicted will be dependent on a whole host of other factors. Sutton deserves his day in court like anyone else, but these are very serious allegations. Based on everything out there right now, I think the Lions should be exploring options to cut ties.

I can be spared from the pearl clutching. It's possible to simultaneously be disgusted by the allegations and domestic violence generally while still wondering what the implications to the team are. There is not a mandatory period of deeper sociological thought required here. I think it's inappropriate for Payton to police people's sympathies and thoughts like this. It also bears mention that for some number of people to whom domestic violence is a very real part of their life, sport serves as a healthy distraction. For those people especially, telling them to think about the domestic violence right now instead of the sport can be incredibly tone deaf to the realities (and prevalence) of domestic violence.

Me either. But he hasn’t been arraigned so it likely just means that he has to stay in custody until arraigned, at which point the judge or magistrate will set a bond. He can’t just turn himself in, post bond, and leave.

I wonder if the Lions are looking to have Goodell place him on the Commissioner’s Exempt List. I believe doing so would mean he would not be included in the present cap figure. At such a point as he is officially found to have violated his contract (thus forfeiting the guaranteed money) he could likely be released at a fraction of the dead cap hit.

This is highly jurisdictional specific. Some police departments and prosecutors will try and some won’t. I’ve seen warrants being issued many months after the alleged incident, and it just lying there for many more months until someone gets pulled over and told surprise, you’ve got a warrant. I suspect this police department knew full well what their sending out a “Warrant Wednesday” on an NFL player would do though.

Probably not. If the police haven't been able to get in touch with him, I doubt he's been forthcoming with his employer about it. And it's not like the Lions can monitor every county's criminal justice system just in case one of their players is issued a warrant.

For like three days, the roster had no holes.

I wondered whether Zeitler would slide into RG or LG. It looks like he's played RG his entire career, so I would expect Glasgow to be told he's the starting LG now. Glasgow has bounced all around the IOL through his career so it shouldn't be too difficult for him to be full-time on the left side. I'm not sure if he's been noticeably better at RG or LG. The difference in what is asked of you isn't substantial at the NFL level but the footwork is very different.