Jump to content

Georgia police want to question Dolphins CB Xavien Howard about shooting, Howard declines interview


Dome

Recommended Posts

Based on reports surfacing yesterday regarding a June 2020 shooting at the home of NFL agent Damarius Bilbo, there’s definitely some smoke when it comes to the potential involvement of Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard. If the NFL has joined the authorities in the search for fire, the NFL isn’t saying so.

“We will decline comment,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a Sunday morning email to PFT regarding the situation.

As the Miami Herald reported on Saturday night, Howard has declined to be interviewed by Georgia police investigating the incident. Unless and until he goes to Georgia (the Dolphins host the Falcons this year), the authorities there will have a hard time forcing an interview. Even if they manage to get Howard in a room, he can always invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

In contrast, the NFL has the power to compel Howard to appear and to talk, with discipline being the leverage to compel compliance. Consider this portion of the Personal Conduct Policy: “Because the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination does not apply in a workplace investigation, the league will reserve the right to compel a player to cooperate in its investigations even when he is the target of a pending law enforcement investigation or proceeding. A player’s refusal to speak to a league investigator under such circumstances will not preclude an investigation from proceeding or discipline from being imposed.”

https://guce.yahoo.com/consent?brandType=nonEu&gcrumb=Wuu8reU&done=https%3A%2F%2Fsports.yahoo.com%2Fnfl-declines-xavien-howard-situation-161402830.html

 

Edited by Dome
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be cautious about projecting any PT issues for Howard for 2021.  Besides the fact it's really unclear what his involvement is, these proceedings can drag on a while - I mean, the fact this happened and 2020 and they're still at this stage, speaks volumes.

What it does mean for Howard & MIA - I don't think there's any chance he gets traded this offseason.   No team will take on the potential spectre of legal trouble (at least not at the value Miami would want).   He wasn't quite in the category of player Houston was looking for in a Watson deal (in that it was presumably rookie-contract level young D player - he's elite, but not cheap), but this pretty much removes him from that type of discussion.

Edited by Broncofan
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not exactly sure what to think of this tbh. It cold be something but the story makes a lot of conjecture despite only knowing Georgia police want to question Xavien. 

It isn't even entirely clear in what way he has declined to be interviewed, either. Will be interesting to see what unfolds, but I'm not sure this points to anything incriminating about Xavien himself, otherwise there are ways to apprehend him from another state.  More likely, he's trying to protect someone else, I'd think

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Until this becomes a real story, I'm just going to believe Xavien Howard had nothing to do with it and that it is just a case of someone in the press trying to create some interest in a story when there isn't much else to talk about.  If we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, we should certainly also be innocent until any charges are even brought.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly this just seems like reckless journalism with a bunch of innuendo. Smoke? Fire? All I’ve seen is that there was a shooting a long time ago and he doesn’t want to talk to the police. Like who did tf wants to talk to the police? Why are they talking about invoking the 5th? No one said he did anything.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...