Former Cardinals vice president Terry McDonough has accused owner Michael Bidwill of cheating, harassment and discrimination in an arbitration claim he filed with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
McDonough, who spent 10 years with the team beginning in 2013, argues in the claim that Bidwill forced him and former Cardinals coach Steve Wilks to use burner phones to communicate with then general manager Steve Keim while Keim was suspended in ’18 by the team after getting arrested for a DUI.
McDonough claims both he and Wilks “objected to and sought to avoid participation” in the scheme to communicate with the suspended Keim. However, after McDonough objected, Bidwill “cursed at, berated and formally reprimanded” him by writing him up for “insubordination.”
According to the claim, McDonough was demoted, which ultimately damaged “the trajectory of McDonough’s 34-year career” in the league. McDonough argues after the demotion, he lost all opportunities to advance elsewhere in the league.
Schefter reports McDonough is “seeking damages for breach of contract and emotional distress.”
The Cardinals publicly denied McDonough’s claims in a response to ESPN. In their statements, the franchise said another executive interfered with Keim’s suspension, and Bidwill took “swift action” and ordered that this communication come to an end. The organization also argued McDonough did not have the full context of these events.
“We are reluctantly obliged to provide a public response along with broader context for some disappointing and irresponsible actions by Terry McDonough,” Jim McCarthy, external public relations adviser to the Cardinals, said in a statement. “Claims he has made in an arbitration filing are wildly false, reckless, and an opportunistic ploy for financial gain.”
Wilks, meanwhile, was fired after one season with the team. In June of last year, he joined Brian Flores’s racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, arguing Arizona intentionally hired him as a “bridge coach.” While Bidwill and Keim accepted accountability for Wilks’s time with the team not working out, McDonough’s claim argues otherwise.
“Steve Wilks has demonstrated that he is a skilled NFL head coach when he is not forced to cheat and is given an opportunity to succeed,” the claim says, via Schefter. “And contrary to Keim's statement, neither he nor Bidwill have ever been held to account for their illicit actions during the 2018 preseason.”
Additionally, McDonough accuses Bidwill of treating “a Black employee and two pregnant women poorly,” which led to “an environment of fear for minority employees.” According to the claim, Bidwill made two pregnant women cry with “abusive and bullying mistreatment.”
In response, Arizona claims McDonough took a “passing interaction” between Bidwill and a group of free agents as “some sort of racial animus.”
The Cardinals’ statement also argues McDonough has “intended to malign his co-workers, our owner Michael Bidwill, and our team with outlandish accusations.” Finally, the team alleges McDonough would frequently lose his temper after instances of “friction with colleagues and willful insubordination.”
According to Schefter, the Cardinals have 20 days to respond to the NFL before Goodell can make a decision on the dispute.
