to the Arizona Cardinals, Steve Wilkes was the head coach of
the team
for one season. His claim is that he was a bridge coach and
the notion that was crafted in the original Brian Flores
lawsuit. Was that some black coaches find themselves in
a spot where they basically were selected to be a short-term
coach knowing on the way in the David Kelly phenomenon
because we all I kind of believe after the fact that
the Texans are hired. David collie with the goal of quickly,
firing David collie. And then hiring the person they really
wanted to be the coach of the team, which
I believe was Josh McCown, and I believe they would have hired
Josh McCown, but for the Brian Flores lawsuit, I digress,
Steve Wilkes, allegedly a bridge coach for the Arizona
Cardinals in 2018.
This one to me is fascinating, Peter, not because of what we
already know, but because of what we may learn again,
If it plays out in an open court system
and not in the NFL's rig kangaroo court because one of
the most compelling facts, in all of this,
is the comparison of the treatment of Steve Wilks.
And Steve Keim, the two Steve's, Steve chyme, 2018
DUI conviction
suspension that overlapped with training camp
and on the surface. Wilkes argument is I was basically
operating with one hand tied behind my back. I don't have
a general manager.
Why are you holding me to this high standard in? Firing me at
the end of the year? And not Steve chyme, who's the one that
created? This mess, cam had one year left on his contract.
Wilkes had three, it would have been cheaper to just
Fire Chi Minh hire a new GM
at a deeper level.
We're going to see
an aggressive attempt to prove
and you've already seen hints of it in the lawsuit
that Steve kimes suspension was not honored
by Michael Bidwell. The owner of the Arizona Cardinals
that there was communication and involvement
by Steve Keim, maybe every single day in training camp
that even though he was suspended. He was still
performing the job. He was still involved. That
is Not quite the Stephen Ross hundred thousand dollar per
loss offer,
but it does delve into something different than
discriminatory aspects of this lawsuit. This is
did an NFL franchise comply with the suspension
that was levied upon the team's general manager or was there
some effort to circumvent it, that is going to be
a fascinating wrinkle to all of this. And another reason why
we can only hope that it plays out publicly so we can all find
out what happened. Instead of it all happening secretly and
we have no access to how any of it plays out.
You know, I think the difficulty that Wilkes is going
to have in this particular case
is that you know where as Wilkes got this job and was
the head coach for one unsuccessful season,
chyme had been with the organization for 19 years. At
that point. He'd been the general manager for five years.
And early on in his general manager duties,
he made a trade which turned out to be a great trade
of a seventh-round draft pick for Carson Palmer.
I think it was a seven
seventh round draft pick for Carson, Palmer
and a year after that trade,
or a little more than a year.
The Arizona Cardinals are in the NFC championship game.
So, I think
what Steve Keim and what Michael bid will will claim is
that
chyme, had some currency in the bank
with us
after five years being general manager, knowing we might need
to rebuild in the future
or you know, whatever we would do.
We trust kind based on his history and his resume in his
19 years working
for the The team we trust that he's going to be able to do it.
Now. You can always make the claim that anybody who gets a
what is the the severe DUI called
whatever it's called the excessive DUI,
you know, when you're more than twice
extreme, the level extreme DUI. Yeah,
because that's what he got.
You could easily make the argument that that should
disqualify you from working for wherever. Work
and I get it, if that's going to be your case, then so be it.
But the fact is
chyme,
was able to retain his job. And I think what the Cardinals will
claim is that the two things that
that will claims
one is that he
encouraged them to trade up and to try to get Josh Allen at
quarterback. And instead they traded up and got
Josh Rosen. At quarterback and what a disaster that was and
look
obviously we can all see that was
you know, getting Josh Rosen
was a bad call by them.
But
you know any legal person is going to say, well, mr. Wilkes,
you're not the general manager of the team and it,
you know, you can't
you have no,
you basically have no standing to tell them.
Who to trade in every, that's not your job? It's the general
manager's job and if he screwed it up, that's the way life
goes.
But, but I do think the one part of this
that, that the that the suit does
bring into play is how often
a black head coach. Basically has been a bridge coach
fired after one year
when it was a debacle. Anyway, you know,
David culley could bring up the same thing with the Houston
Texans.
The Steve chyme arrest happened July for 2018. Blood alcohol,
concentration of point, one, nine percent extreme DUI kicks
in above .15, the legal limit. Every state is point, zero
eight
percent. There was a five week suspension and a two hundred
thousand dollar fine
announced by the Cardinals, but the league was involved in
that. And this is one of those Peter where
you've got the lawsuit. You've got the claims in the lawsuit.
You Circumstances connected to the underlying facts that can
create chaos for the organization. That's what's
fascinating about. This that
in defending against Steve Wilkes lawsuit. The Cardinals
will have to deal with this collateral issue of whether and
to what extent the terms of the suspension were violated by
the organization, in order to
try to get business done. There's also a little element of
the tanking in one of the allegations from Steve Wilkes,
even though he's not Making
anything close to the kinds of claims
for now that Brian Flores is making
the idea that Steve common Michael Bidwell were upset.
After the team had a late season victory over the Green
Bay Packers because they coveted that first overall pick
in the draft. Once they knew they were done.
They didn't want to win games.
Now. Remember when Brian Flores first filed, his lawsuit, there
was no specific claim tied to that allegation. It was just
dropped out there without any legal Theory. Now, the legal
theory has been out of, we'll talk about that in a minute.
It's Steve Wilkes could at some point down, the road amended
complaint to argue some sort of whistleblower violation or some
sort of public policy violation that resulted from
the Cardinals, wanting him to lose
Wilkes refusing to lose. Even though they ultimately lost
enough games to get the first overall pick, but that being
a factor in the final decision making process by
the Cardinals,
to say we're done with this guy. He doesn't play ball.
The way we want him to play ball. He doesn't do what we
want them to do and some would argue Steve Keim has lasted as
long as he has in the Cardinals organization because he knows
when to do
what the boss wants him to do
and Wilkes, arguably, didn't do what the boss wanted him to do
and he was only a one-year employee of the team. Peter.
I mean look, they're going to be all kinds of charges and
counter-charges
and
when Wilkes left, I remember the sort of
the
I don't want to say the drum beat, but you know
the Cardinals claim at the time when he left is that basically
either we weren't making the progress. We thought we were
are we should have been
you know, we A different style of Coach, whatever. Whatever
was said afterwards.
It's what you say to justify a decision.
That looks absolutely terrible.
And so the Cardinals now
are probably going to have to if this ever were in open court.
And Michael bid will gets up or Steve chyme gets up.
Why did you fire?
You know, Steve Wilkes. After one year.
It'll be very interesting to see what their,
what their
Justification is keeping in mind that their quarterback,
Josh Alan, you know, his basically. Now I think been
with four or five teams and he's had an opportunity to
rebuild his career and even be just a quality backup and
he can't even stay on a team because of that, you know, it
as that job. And so I think Wilkes would have a real
interest in Case here in saying that,
you know, Vince, Lombardi or Bill Walsh couldn't have
succeeded in this job.
I got one for you. I got a who said it.
I think we played that game yesterday. Sims and me draft
Edition, Hears, a Who said it late? 2018 addition. We all
would want him back. I love Steve Wilkes. Great. Dude, we
play hard for him.
That's the team. Not just me speaking on it. Who said it.
Chandler Jones
Larry, Fitzgerald even better. Wow, that's good.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so
good luck, Arizona.