A Dallas Cowboys special teams player has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman at the team's hotel in Texas on Sept. 20 - and then being allowed to play the next day.
The alleged attack came just a day after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's awkward news conference during which he promised to get tough on players accused of violent crime.
Police in Grapevine, Texas, told the Daily News that C.J. Spillman, 28, is 'involved' in the investigation of a sexual assault that allegedly took place at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, the Cowboys' official hotel since 2009,
'We have a sexual assault report we are investigating at this time, and it does involve C.J. Spillman,' said Sgt. Robert Eberling, a police spokesman. 'He is involved in the investigation. We are looking into the matter.'
The NFL has been under heavy fire for several weeks for the tepid discipline it meted out to players accused of domestic violence, child abuse and other violent acts, prompting the National Organization for Women and other groups to call for Goodell to resign. Goodell acknowledged that the NFL had screwed up during a news conference in New York on Sept. 19 and promised that the league would learn from those mistakes and get things right.
'The same mistakes can never be repeated,' Goodell promised. 'We will get our house in order first. We will do more.'
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Civil rights attorney Gloria Allred sent a letter to the commissioner on Sept. 26, a week after Goodell's uneasy news conference, saying that she represented a woman who filed a police report alleging an NFL player had raped her. The alleged perpetrator, accompanied by a team official, met with police later that day, Allred said in the letter.
'Thereafter, the accused was then allowed by his team to play the following day,' the letter added. 'We have asked the NFL whether or not this alleged rape was reported to them and if they approved this accused individual's playing in the game notwithstanding the allegations that had been made against him.'
Allred declined to discuss the Spillman investigation on Wednesday, but she did respond to a request made earlier this week by the NFL's top lawyer, Jeffrey Pash, to interview the alleged victim.
'In considering whether our client will or will not be agreeable to meeting with your representative we would like to be assured that the NFL is acting in good faith and that it is conducting an investigation which encompasses not only the rape allegations but also why the player and the team involved did not report these matters immediately to the NFL as required by your NFL Personal Conduct Policy,' Allred wrote.
'In other words, my client and I are not an NFL team and the NFL does not get to make all the rules in this situation. This is not a game of football or a sporting competition. It is real life and it concerns a serious allegation of sexual violence against a young woman,' Allred added.
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Spillman had one tackle in the Cowboys' 34-31 victory over the Rams in St. Louis on Sept. 21. The Cowboys did not respond to calls from the Daily News and an NFL spokesman declined comment.
He hasn't been disciplined by the team.
Spillman's agent, Ron Slavin, declined to talk to the News about the allegations.
With Gary Myers
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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