Terry McDonough case against Cardinals gets final $3 million ruling.
The NFL sides with Terry McDonough against the Cardinals.
An NFL arbitrator has ruled that the Arizona Cardinals must pay $3 million to former executive Terry McDonough for making “false and defamatory” statements about him to the media. The decision was filed in federal court on Monday, per ESPN’s Tisha Thompson.
In a 62-page decision dated March 29, Jeffrey Mishkin, the arbitrator appointed by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, found that the Cardinals and their owner, Michael Bidwill, defamed Terry McDonough “with malice” in a multipage statement to media organizations.
The statement accused McDonough of “extreme domestic violence” and alleged that he “abandoned responsibility” for his daughter and “cut her off financially.”
McDonough’s attorney, Mike Caspino, submitted the decision to U.S. District Court in Arizona on Monday as part of McDonough’s request to the court to confirm the award.
The former executive was awarded $2.25 million for punitive damages, $600,000 for emotional distress, and $150,000 for harm to reputation in the decision filed with the federal court on Monday and obtained by The Associated Press.
Terry McDonough, the first person win against an NFL owner
“Despite what we consider to be a fundamentally unfair arbitration process, Terry McDonough is the first person ever to win against an NFL owner,” Caspino said via a statement obtained by ESPN.
“Why the NFL has not held Michael Bidwill accountable remains a mystery.”
The Cardinals expressed satisfaction with the arbitrator’s decision, stating that all of McDonough’s employment claims were dismissed and there were no issues with his dismissal from the team. They acknowledged the arbitrator’s finding that their initial statement was excessive and accepted responsibility for it, expressing gratitude that the arbitration process has concluded.
Mishkin dismissed McDonough’s additional claims of unlawful retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy. McDonough had initiated the arbitration claim against the team in April, asserting that Bidwill and the team retaliated against him after he expressed discomfort with the Cardinals’ use of burner phones to communicate with then-general manager Steve Keim, whom Bidwill had suspended due to extreme DUI.
