Ugly accusations are piling up for Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill
Are we absolutely sure the Washington Commanders' Dan Snyder is the worst current NFL team owner?
Because the Arizona Cardinals' Michael Bidwill seems to merit consideration based on headlines over the past year or so, and more recent allegations are of the type that, if true, are on par with Snyder's myriad misdeeds.
Last week, former Cardinals front-office executive Terry McDonough filed an arbitration claim with the NFL alleging that Bidwill orchestrated and demanded the use of burner phones to communicate with then-general manager Steve Keim while Keim was serving a league-imposed suspension for extreme DUI in 2018. McDonough also accused Bidwill of mistreating pregnant and Black employees.
If confirmed, that alone should be enough for Bidwill to be sanctioned by commissioner Roger Goodell. The Cardinals and Bidwill denied the allegations in a lengthy statement.
But cheating isn't the only claim McDonough made, and on Monday, Pro Football Talk obtained an email from a second former Cardinals exec that backed up several of his claims, including Bidwill's behavior toward team office staffers and a claim that Bidwill shut down an employee survey when the early returns were unfavorable toward him.
These come weeks after the first NFL Players Association survey revealed that Arizona players graded the team at an F or F-minus in five of eight categories, including treatment of families, food service and nutrition, weight room, training room and locker room.
And they come months after the Cardinals agreed to a contract extension with quarterback Kyler Murray that included a preposterous homework clause that got leaked to media.
There's also the Cardinals' more direct inclusion in Brian Flores' class-action lawsuit against the NFL alleging racial discrimination in hiring practices, with former Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks joining the lawsuit and alleging that Arizona hired him in 2018 as a "bridge coach" — basically, intending to fire him — and was dealt a difficult hand in his one 3-13 season with the team.
McDonough's claim likely strengthens Wilks' allegations. McDonough says that when told to break the rules by using a burner phone to communicate with Keim during his suspension, both he and Wilks pushed back, much like Flores says he refused to bow to demands from Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to tank during the 2019 season when Flores was Miami's head coach. The NFL later ruled there was no evidence of intentional tanking.
McDonough says he was written up for "insubordination" for not wanting to use the burner phones, and was "cursed at, berated, formally reprimanded and ultimately demoted," a move that he claims damaged his career.
As for Wilks, McDonough accuses the franchise owner of sabotaging the head coach before firing him to hire Kliff Kingsbury, a man propped up as an offensive guru despite producing just one winning season at Texas Tech when he had Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback.
As reported by Pro Football Talk and other outlets, former Cardinals vice president and chief operating officer Ron Minegar hand-delivered a letter to Bidwill in December 2019 that backs up several of McDonough's claims, primarily his alleged tyrannical workplace behavior.
“You are not the guy I met back in 2000,” Minegar wrote, per PFT. “You used to smile and laugh a lot. You used to be fun to be around. ... I acknowledge that you have had to deal with a ton of issues this past year, but you come to work angry every day. You talk down to almost everyone. You’ve become arrogant and condescending. You need to get credit for everything when things are going well and are quick to point the finger at everyone else when we are struggling.”
Minegar also took Bidwill to task for killing the employee engagement survey instead of working to do better by those who worked for the organization.
“Sadly, we learned that a majority of our employees are working in fear," Minegar wrote. "There are several factors, but much of this was directed at you based on the poor interaction they’ve had with you. ... What was your reaction when you saw the preliminary responses? Instead of leaning into it and trying to change things for the better, you shut the study down."
The Cardinals used an external public relations adviser to refute McDonough's claims. Minegar says the team cherry-picked communications he sent to Bidwill. That's quite reminiscent of statements we've seen from Snyder's PR people: attack and deflect, attack and deflect. And never, ever take responsibility for your misdeeds. It's the NFL way.
Minegar said in a statement he regretted that his personal note to Bidwill had become public.
Why hasn't Bidwill received the same amount of attention and blowback? Is it because Arizona as a team doesn't have the cache and national recognition that Washington does? Is it because there isn't yet an outlet doggedly revealing the depths of alleged misdeeds like the Washington Post has done with Snyder? Is it because in many corners the NFL's reputation is such that these type of allegations of terrible behavior aren't a surprise?
In the Cardinals' Phoenix home market, an ESPN report of then-Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver's terrible behavior was publicly affirmed by an NBA investigation and led to Sarver having to quickly sell both teams. Meanwhile, the NFL gave a scant account of its findings in its first investigation into Snyder and it is seemingly slow-walking the second. It appears the owner class is protecting Snyder despite being at odds with him, and his cavernous stadium is embarrassingly sparse on game days.
Will the NFL even move to protect employees in franchises and league offices from abhorrent "leadership" from team owners and other executives? It's not enough that many of them are terrible community members, fleecing taxpayers for new stadium monies while keeping profits for themselves, there's evidence some of them don't even treat those who make those teams go with a modicum of decency.
Snyder might be the worst owner in the NFL, but it appears he's getting competition.
