After a quiet season for Bills running back Marshawn Lynch, the man who has encountered his share of trouble looks to be in trouble yet again.
According to Lou Michel of the Buffalo News, Lynch faces allegations that he stole $20 from a woman at a TGI Friday’s last month.
Let’s repeat that. Marshawn Lynch, a millionaire NFL player, faces allegations that he stole $20 from a woman at a TGI Friday’s last month.
Allegedly, two women were at a table at the restaurant when another member of the Bills struck up a conversation one of them. Eventually, Lynch arrived. The other woman at some point pulled out a $20 bill in preparation for paying the check.
Lynch then took the money.
His mistake was that the woman from whom he took the money is married to Buffalo Police Sgt. William Crawford.
“He takes the $20 out of her hand, and my wife says ‘What are you doing?’ and Lynch says “Don’t worry,’” Crawford said, per the News. “When my wife’s girlfriend came back to the table, she told her about it. The girlfriend approached Lynch and said, ‘Give my friend her money back,’ and Lynch threatened her saying ‘Do you know who I am? There’s going to be consequences.’
Crawford also says that he was told Bills security talked to Lynch about the incident, and that Lynch claimed that he and Crawford’s wife are friends. Crawford said his wife insists she doesn’t know Lynch, and Lynch’s assertion prompted Crawford’s wife to make an official statement to the police.
We know what you’re thinking. Something feels very weird about this one. But regardless of what facts might (or might not) be percolating beneath the surface, the reality at this point is that the Crawfords seem intent on pushing the matter. Thus, an arrest -- even if there’s never a conviction or a guilty plea -- could result in further discipline for Lynch, given his history with the Personal Conduct Policy.
In 2008, Lynch was accused of hit-and-run. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, and he was not suspended by the league. Last year, an arrest and conviction on a weapons charge resulted in a three-game suspension.
So Lynch’s history will complicate things for him. In January 2009, Commissioner Roger Goodell explained the league’s sensitivity to repeat offenders under the Personal Conduct Policy. “You can have false accusations once, maybe twice,” Goodell said at his annual pre-Super Bowl press conference. “When you start getting to multiple [arrests], you’re putting yourself in the wrong position, you’re making the wrong decisions in the wrong places. At that point in time, you’re reflecting poorly on the NFL itself, your teammates.”
With the emergence of Fred Jackson, who rushed for 1,020 yards in 2009, the Bills likely having been thinking about moving on from Marshawn. The latest allegations -- regardless of what happens with them -- could be enough to nudge the team closer toward the seemingly inevitable decision that Lynch brings more problems to a franchise that already has plenty of them.