Kicker Brandon McManus is back in the NFL, as a member of the Packers. And the claims that could have derailed his career even longer than they did are now behind him.
Via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com, McManus said Wednesday that the lawsuit filed by two flight attendants against him for assault and sexual assault has been “resolved.”
Both his lawyer, Brett Gallaway, and the attorney representing the plaintiffs, Tony Buzbee, confirmed that the case has been resolved. Neither disclosed any of the terms.
McManus was cut by the Commanders not long after the lawsuit was filed. On September 30, the league announced that its investigation of McManus revealed insufficient evidence of a violation of the Personal Conduct Policy. Buzbee told PFT after the NFL’s declaration that the league had not interviewed the plaintiffs.
Now that the case has been resolved, the plaintiffs most likely won’t be cooperating.
The article doesn’t say whether the claims against the Jaguars also had been resolved. Without a global resolution, however, the plaintiffs could at some point tell their story during depositions or trial testimony. That fact alone suggests strongly that all claims against all defendants have been resolved, and that the plaintiffs are bound by a blanket confidentiality agreement.
“It’s been a difficult time these last couple of months,” McManus said Wednesday, via Demovsky. “I’m happy that it’s in the past now. I was hoping and working hard for another opportunity. I’m extremely grateful for the Green Bay Packers for giving me that next chance to come back out here and play the game I love.”
Packers G.M. Brian Gutekunst declined to delve into the details, instead saying the team is “very, very comfortable” with the situation.
“I think for us really obviously he wouldn’t be available right now if those accusations weren’t out there,” Gutekunst said Wednesday, per Demovsky. “But I think the league did a really thorough investigation, and we leaned on that as we went through it.”
The investigation couldn’t have been all that thorough if the plaintiffs weren’t interviewed. And if the case was resolved before they could cooperate, the process was short circuited in the same way it was by the settlement of the recent lawsuit against Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson. The accuser in that case also was represented by Buzbee.
Settlements of civil cases are common. Confidentiality clauses are common, too. The ability of NFL players who are accused of wrongdoing to broker settlements that buy silence highlights the biggest flaw inherent to the league’s in-house justice system. With no subpoena power, the NFL can never get to the full and complete truth.
Whatever the truth might be.
