Chronology of Saints' Off-field Problems
Posted: Monday November 02, 1998 05:12 PM
A brief history of some of the off-the-field problems that have beset the
New Orleans Saints
since spring: - November 1: New Saints quarterback Kerry Collins is arrested
and charged with drunken driving early in the morning, hours after a game
against his former Carolina Panthers
teammates. Highway Patrol trooper R.A. Benge's arrest affidavit says Benge
stopped Collins because the 1995 Lexus he was driving was left of the
center line. Collins exhibited a "very strong odor of alcohol, red and
glassy eyes, slurred speech ... unsteady on his feet."
- October 20:
Former Saints free agent Jeff Danish files suit in U.S. District Court
in Madison, Wisonsin, demanding that the team, six players and a coach pay
him more than $650,000 for physical and emotional suffering, lost wages,
medical expenses, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life. The suit
springs from a hazing incident on August 20, the last night of training
camp at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Danish and two other
rookies, including No. 2 draft pick Cam Cleeland were injured.
-
August 3: Wide receiver Keith Poole faces a
battery complaint after allegedly striking a 26-year-old La Crosse,
Wisconsin, man with a golf club, causing a 2-inch gash on the man's left
hip, according to the La Crosse Police Department. Poole was arrested by
police at 2:37 a.m. after a brief chase on foot through a residential
section near the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Court action is
pending.
- July 26: Rookie defensive lineman Julian Pittman, the second
of two fourth-round draft picks, spends a night in jail at Tallahassee,
Florida. He allegedly violated five conditions of a court-ordered
probation, a court spokesman said. Pittman is on probation for five years
for felony burglary. Later Pittman is convicted of violating the conditions
of his probation by buying alcohol for a minor, staying out after his
curfew, visiting a bar and drinking. He was sent to the Leon County Jail in
Tallahassee, Florida, and could be sentenced to 3 1/2 years behind bars.
- May 26: Keno
Hills and a teenager are arrested after allegedly becoming belligerent
with police in the parking lot of a seafood restaurant in Morgan City,
Louisiana. He pleads no contest. The charge can be expunged from his record
if he meets conditions of a minor sentence.
- April 29: Lamar Smith, a free-agent
running back from Seattle, agrees to terms on a four-year, $7.1 million
contract. Before he can sigh, however, he must obtain a furlough from a
work-release program to travel to New Orleans. He was serving a 60-day
sentence for vehicular assault in 1994.
- April 20: Defensive
lineman Joe Johnson is
issued a traffic ticket in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody, Georgia, after
he backs into another car in a restaurant parking lot and leaves before the
driver can copy his insurance information, according to police. Johnson
also has pleaded no contest to grabbing a woman's buttocks outside a Kenner
nightclub that he owns. He was fined $197.50, given a 60-day jail sentence
that was suspended and 60 days' probation.
- April 5: Return
specialist Eric
Guliford is accused of simple battery and disturbing the peace for his
involvement in an incident outside a restaurant. Guliford pleads innocent.
- March 18: Andre Royal, a free-agent
linebacker from Carolina, signs a four-year, $3.805 million offer sheet
from the Saints hours after being arrested and booked with simple battery,
public drunkenness and failure to pay for food and drink at a Bourbon
Street strip club. Royal is later traded to Indianapolis.
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