9:58pm: In what will be the final McManus update of the night, Mike Florio of NBC Sports provided some insight into the kicker’s compensation as a result of his release. According to Florio, McManus had already been paid half of the $1.5MM signing bonus on his one-year, $3.6MM contract. The remaining $750K of the signing bonus was due to be paid “on or before June 7,” which is this upcoming Friday.
The Commanders could opt not to pay McManus under some argument — Florio suggests that they could argue that McManus should’ve disclosed the potential civil claims before the team signed him — and take the kicker to arbitration. While under arbitration, Washington would still hold the cap charge for the unpaid money. If the team is successful in arbitration, though, they would get cap relief and would not be required to pay the remainder of the signing bonus.
8:37pm: Quick on the draw, McManus’ representation, Brett Gallaway, has released another statement on the release of his client, per Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post. After a quick cordiality, Gallaway maintained his client’s innocence, reiterating “that the allegations against Brandon are and remain absolutely false and importantly, are contradicted by indisputable evidence and the accusers’ own prior inconsistent statements and omissions.”
Gallaway also expresses disappointment in the team’s decision to terminate McManus’ contract before the kicker had a chance to defend himself against the allegations of sexual assault. Regardless, McManus and Gallaway will continue to advocate for his innocence and work to return the 32-year-old to the NFL.
6:52pm: The Commanders signed veteran kicker Brandon McManus three months ago expecting him to provide them with an upgrade at the position in 2024. Last week saw the former Jaguars kicker named in a sexual assault lawsuit of which he vehemently denied the allegations. The Commanders are apparently not taking any chances, though, announcing that they have released McManus today. 
Washington allowed Joey Slye to walk in free agency after just over two years with the team. During his time with the team, Slye missed 10 of 66 field goal attempts and eight of 73 extra point attempts. McManus hasn’t seen much more success in the last two years, missing 15 of 58 field goal attempts in the past two seasons, but he has at least been more consistent on extra points and has much more experience than the 28-year-old Slye.
Last week, though, McManus and his former team were both named in a lawsuit made by anonymous plaintiffs accusing McManus of rubbing himself and grinding against them and offering them cash to drink with and dance inappropriately for him and accusing Jacksonville of facilitating this behavior by failure to supervise. Both women worked as flight attendants at the time of the incident but have since been removed from the flight crew that works with the team’s trips.
McManus’ representation released a statement later that day, saying that the allegations were “absolutely fictitious and demonstrably false and that they were “part of a campaign to defame and disparage the 32-year-old kicker. Both the Jaguars and Commanders released statements of their own. Both franchises acknowledged the allegations and their severity and claimed to be looking into the matter further.
Jacksonville’s statement emphasized that they “insist on an organization built by people who represent (their) community and game with the highest character and class.” Since then, the team, namely head coach Doug Pederson, has pleaded ignorance. Pederson made claims that he was disappointed to hear about the lawsuit when it first became public, and that typical flights for the team are more in the realm of a business trip.
Washington’s statement claimed that they take allegations of this nature very seriously and had been in communication with the league office and McManus’ representation. The team’s responsibility to take allegations of this nature very seriously is perhaps underlined by the allegations made in 2020 aimed at their former owner Dan Snyder, who reportedly sexually harassed and discriminated against former employees including office workers and cheerleaders.
There’s an argument to be made that no new information was made available to the Commanders and that the team frankly refused to put up with any more bad press of that nature. McManus and the Jaguars still have lawsuits that will need to play out, but the Commanders had an opportunity to cut ties with the situation and get their name out of the press surrounding it, and they’ve effectively done just that.
That’s just speculation, but the reality of the situation now sees McManus in need of a job, though that will likely be the lower of his two current priorities. A similar situation saw former Bills punter Matt Araiza leave the NFL after being accused in participating in a gang rape. His accuser eventually agreed to drop the lawsuit (in exchange for Araiza dropping a lawsuit accusing defamation), and the former sixth-round draft pick has joined the Chiefs two months later. If McManus gets through the litigation unscathed and clean, he’ll then be tasked with reestablishing his spot in the NFL. If not, though, we may have seen the end of the road for the veteran kicker.
As for Washington, they will open up phase III of organized team activities tomorrow, and after cutting McManus, they currently don’t have a kicker on the roster. Randy Bullock is one of few veteran free agent kickers available after appearing in only six games for the Giants last year. There are likely a number of undrafted college kickers who would be available to sign, as well. Whatever the move, the Commanders need to add a leg to their locker room quickly.
Sexual harassment on a plane is a sore subject for the organization. You can see why Washington wouldn’t want a kicker who acts like Daniel Snyder.
There is also the issue of alcohol on a team flight.
Also begs the question of how such a thing can happen on a plane full of pro players and staff in this era, doesn’t it?
It sure does.
Another site said some players were partying with some female fligt attendants. The ones filing the suit didn’t want to participate. Who knkws what happens on long NFL team charter flights?
The teams should, especially given that there are rules against serving booze on them.
The NFL should and will hammer the crap out of the Jaguars. I’m talking maybe a #1.
And if I were the owner, assuming he wasn’t on the plane, I’d question the competency of the coaches and FO types on the plane.
I question how effective a coach’s leadership qualities are if he doesn’t tell the players to roll it back a little. What kind of discipline are you exerting in the clubhouse if you allow the plane to run amok? And I like to party as much as the next guy, but sometimes the guy in charge have to tell them to calm down.
Yep. Especially when Doug Pederson’s brand was supposed to be the good clean adult in the room to be the opposite culture of Urban Meyer. Ironically, maybe this time the coach needed to kick the kicker.
It must be hard to find someone kick for Washington. Everyone is too wide left or far right.
Or, in McManus’s case, too much of an apparent creep.
Gonna let this one play out. I mean Matt Araiza was accused of worse and took a while to find out he wasn’t even there when things went down at the party. If he’s guilty just start banning these dude for life lot less to worry about.
Sounds like he thought the plane was a strip club, doesn’t sound like it’s any different that happens there, but the owner, gm or whoever was on the plane should’ve stepped in.
Guilty until proven innocent. Scary world now
Employed until you break team and league rules.
Innocent until proven guilty has only ever been the standard for criminal court. Teams can cut players for basically any reason. Seems probable that McManus at least acted like a schmuck, and they likely know more about the story than the public does.
I don’t have any leanings for either side in this dispute-meaning, I acknowledge that either could be right or either could be wrong-but this new age excuse of “innocent until proven guilty” only applying to the government is a massive cop-out for us as a society. Yes, we all do know or should know that that is a legal concept only applying to the state. However, if that is the attitude that we choose to endorse-that we will simply believe an accusation, or least act on it-then where is that concept practically effective? Sure, it only applies to the government-but we’ll shun the person out of every private sphere or be too concerned about optics to give him/her a fair valuation, without review of their his/her actual guilt.
This is not, and should not be, an argument on the morality of the situation, of a discourse on political leanings. It’s only the realization that we are acting based on something that we don’t know for a fact to be true, and the truth itself could be far from similar. You can be so completely convinced about the veracity of a fact, so completely set on it, and then find out that the opposite was true. IfMcManus is not guilty of what he’s accused of, and you treated him this way, would you be okay with that? I’m not even arguing for McManus’ innocence or guilt, but I don’t like how we so easily throw away our acknowledgement that we actually don’t know the truth and settle for whatever version of the accusation that we believe.
At the end of the day, we don’t know what McManus did or didn’t do, and it’s rather arrogant to assume that we do without some sort of access. Of course, in this case, if Washington conducted its own investigation and found enough evidence to toss him, that’s much different. They validated the claims enough to make a change. That’s different than making up your mind based on accusations. Pushing that responsibility onto the government only sets a poor tone for society as a whole. We know you don’t HAVE to not rush to a conclusion. I’m saying that you shouldn’t WANT to rush to one.
Your points are well taken, Ak. To extend your point a bit, how many lives and careers are ruined by the mere accusation of crimes even after an individual recants or an investigation or trial finds the accused not guilty or culpable? I get all that
But let’s move beyond cases like this one or the Roethlisberger accusations that are well known here because you’re right, there are three sides to every story
Whether it’s something akin to @JoeBrady’s anecdote or cases we see frequently in news reports, how does one *not* believe that the laws are easily circumvented by the wealthy and famous?
I agree that it’s become fashionable to rush to judgment with the help of media outlets and social media. But isn’t it a bit naive to not feel badly for victims who dare accuse someone in the public eye?
It can be, feeling badly is not a farfetched idea. Having emotions, opinions, and reactions are inevitable and expected, especially for people who have personal experience. There are also people who have similar reactions on the other side of the issue as well. People can extrapolate their own experiences or draw conclusions based on their own moral code, which is why lawyers or parties involved bother having press disclosures for the public to begin with. So, no, it’s obviously not unexpected. Having a reaction, however, is different than taking action or advocating for action to be taken definitively. Thinking and acting are two extremely different levels of reaction. I don’t want people to feel restricted in having reactions or thoughts, but I don’t want us to become a society where we act without certainty.
What we hear, and even what we believe, is often different than reality. The encouragement to sink further into that mindset that I see a lot today is what I don’t agree with. Just throwing the responsibility to acknowledge someone’s potential innocence off to some other authority en masse creates a societal indifference to the presumption of innocence. If that disappears, so does the expectation of fairness. It’s easy to scoff at that, sure, but if society doesn’t have any expectation of that concept, what incentive does the “government” that we’re propping up have to enforce that?
We can’t just base it off the type of accusation or whether we like the accused; it’s an absolute concept. Again, this isn’t about McManus specifically. This is about the shipping off the “innocent until proven guilty” as some kind of government only box to check. It’s not just for government; it’s something that just exists in reality. None of us were there to definitively to say what happened in most scenarios, and to assume that we can know the absolute facts in those cases takes a sort of arrogance that has an overall detrimental effect on the concept of fairness in society-not to mention accuracy. This isn’t against you, of course, I upvoted you because you raise good points. I just hate the “innocent until proven guilty is just for government” concept. It’s just passing off responsibility to be evaluate situations accurately and to be fair to others and to reality.
Tremendous response, Ak, and much appreciated
I’ll only take issue with your “government” theme and expand it to the wealthy, famous and powerful
Your “we were not there to know definitively” is appropriate, of course, and yet that very premise has extended to the query of what exactly constitutes *facts?*. All too often, fame and money provide a pulpit to call fact into question in favor of ideas like bias, agenda and the like.
The problem is magnified from a female perspective, isn’t it? It’s difficult enough to prove crimes Ike rape or sexual assault but making such claims regarding a public figure entails confronting a gauntlet that puts the aggrieved on the defensive.
As you noted, we’ve reached the point of critical mass where indifference, heartlessness, apathy boorishness and blind allegiance to a favorite ….(fill in the blank)… is concerned
No, we weren’t there. But I feel badly for real victims who suffered at the hands of an individual who believes he has cart Blanche to do so. Money can’t erase every scar
I like your comments here but in the real world, it’s often the case that I’m not sure anyone with intelligence had to be in the vicinity to know a crime was committed
I’ve strayed from the McManus story. Apologies
We’ve hijacked it a bit, and you’ve made good points. We’ve spoken our peace, either way. I believe that empathy is important and expectable, but I can’t let that ultimately override my fairness to the accused. I’ve been wrong too many times to make that assumption, and I’d wager society has as a whole. I recognize your concerns, though, and have sympathy for your perspective as well.
As far as the actual case in question goes, there were certainly a lot of witnesses in this specific case. There should be plenty of potential testimony as to the conduct exercised on that plane.
Even scarier when you add “innocent even after proven guilty” on top of it.
Funny how money makes a great deal of messy problems just disappear, too
Someone once said that America is a business. We solve our problems with money. As an accountant, I like settling disputes with money.
As a side story, one of my kids went to a school that had a teacher/student problem from 30 years earlier. Rather dispute it or argue or procrastinate, the president flew the family into NY and picked up the tab for everything, and apologized. I don’t know if the apology was also monetary, but that felt exactly like it should be handled. When you make a mistake, you make amends.
McManus will be sorry he let it go this far.
I say this a lot. America is a company
Terrifying world bro
The non-gunateed contract is a big deal here. it’s the reason you see a guy get cut so quickly in the NFL versus other leagues.
Don’t get too riled up about this, after all he is a kicker.
If this was Terry McLaurin or any other player with strong jersey sales, they would be waiting to let the process play out.
Also easier to dump a kicker, treat a woman like Kareem Hunt or Joe Mixon and you’ll still cash checks.
Scary facts
KARMA !!! Act a fool n u are a fool. Out of league w/black eye and he still has lawsuits to settle. Not sure if he was married or not but that can’t be going well. Did it to himself. Sure he’ll go down as cautionary tale at nfl rookie symposium.
Wasn’t the best choice to kick anyhow. Plenty of good kickers in XFL or whatever it’s called.
Idiot kicker
why not let the legal process play out before making decisions based on presumed outcome?
If your daughter said the neighbor groped her, he said he didn’t. The video will come out in 2 years to see who is lying. Are you going to wait or just kick his ass now?
Are you going to wait or just kick his ass now?
====================
It goes against every fiber of my instinct, but I have to say, this is why you have a court system.
OTOH, assuming you had some decent evidence, you’ll want my on your jury should your actions go sideways.
Enjoyed your comments on this thread, Joe and your real world rendering that money is a form of apology that often solves everything
As the father of two daughters however, my first instinct would be in line with Ripper’s. Given the severity of the offense, I’d have to contemplate my response and would hope I’d have someone like you to hold my arms and drench me in common sense
What’s most galling to me is that a veiled truth now seems to be obvious even to children. There are two sets of laws in this country, and the rich and famous sure seem to solve problems with payouts
Why deal with the potential PR nightmare for a guy who doesn’t cost much to cut?
Because regardless of the outcome no organization wants to be attached to a mediocre player that’s fighting a legal battle especially one where harassment is involved. Heck most non-sports organizations would do the same.
Because of his position. It’s not fair, but it’s easy, and that’s the kicker.
Somehow I don’t think $750K in cap relief is going to be a game changer for the Commanders but it wouldn’t surprise me if the organization took McManus to arbitration just to send a message.
Forget sending a message. Money is money. Teams need every cent against the salary cap they can get.
Both correct. You need to send a message that you have disclose crap like this. But even if you didn’t care about the optics, the $750k might help extend some low-end bench piece that you like.
Almost like these teams haven’t learned.
McManus should sign with Cleveland. They like creeps.
KC on line 2
Ehhh, even Cleveland takes the scumbags KC cuts ties with, see Kareem Hunt…
Got to make an example out of him… can’t and wont be tolerated