George McCaskey Expresses Sadness For Victims, Regret For Ray McDonald Signing
By Chris Emma--
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (CBS) -- Two days after the domestic violence arrest of Ray McDonald, which ultimately led to his release from the Bears, team chairman George McCaskey expressed regret and took ownership for the signing of the troubled player to a one-year deal in March.
McDonald was arrested early Monday in Santa Clara, California, for his third known case of violence toward a woman since August, forcing Bears general manager Ryan Pace to immediately release the defensive end.
"The overriding emotion for me was sadness -- sadness for the child, for the child's mother and the entire situation," McCaskey said.
The Bears took to the practice field at Halas Hall on Wednesday without a defensive end pegged to be a key piece of Vic Fangio's 3-4 defense. The move to release McDonald was made swiftly by Pace, without the advice of McCaskey.
However, it was McCaskey who initially told Pace he didn't want to sign McDonald, then took a chance when McDonald flew in to visit with the Bears. McCaskey then spoke with the parents of McDonald, though not the alleged victims from prior incidents.
In what some viewed as tone deaf, McCaskey said in March that victims have a "bias" in such cases and "there's a certain amount of discounting in what they have to say." He addressed that again Wednesday.
"One of my concerns was the bias anybody has in that situation," McCaskey said. "An alleged victim wants to make sure that charges are filed. An alleged perpetrator is doing everything he can to make sure that charges aren't filed. So that was part of it. But a larger concern to me was to make sure I didn't interfere with any criminal investigation or with any league investigation by talking to the child's mother."
A a member of the NFL's new code of conduct committee, McCaskey said he hasn't heard any talks within the league of punishments for teams that have players get arrested. The signing of McDonald came with the recommendation of Pace, Fangio and defensive backs coach Ed Donatell, and then McCaskey followed through with his own investigation into McDonald.
At the time, McCaskey believed had conducted enough research to endorse the signing.
"I've asked myself that question a lot," McCaskey said. "What more could I have done? Is there somebody else that we could've consulted with? Should I have taken more time to make a decision? I don't know. We thought we had a good structure, a good support system, and we thought we had the safeguards in place in case something like this happened."
Shortly after the release of McDonald, Bears guard Kyle Long took to Twitter with two words: Good riddance.
Bears running back Matt Forte declined to elaborate on the specifics of McDonald's case, citing a lack of knowledge on the situation. However, Forte did speak to the importance of adding character to a roster.
"Big time," Forte said. "That's all you want in your locker room, is character guys. You get a character guy, he makes the team better. It's not only about himself -- he wants to produce and make everybody successful, too."
At practice Wednesday, the Bears were moving on without McDonald, but they're still carrying the regrets of the signing.
McCaskey is taking ownership of the error in judgement while hoping better comes from his historic franchise and the league as a whole.
"It was our decision, my decision, ultimately, alone," McCaskey said.
"The NFL, because it's a leader in society, is called upon to take action, which we are doing. We're not going to do it by ourselves, but we have an opportunity to make an impact."
Follow Chris on Twitter @CEmma670.
