The Lions weren’t taking any chances, cutting guard Rodney Austin immediately upon word of his arrest.
But Austin’s agent called the arrest on two misdemeanor assault charges a “non-issue,” and said he expected Austin to be cleared.
Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, agent Mark Magazu was on the phone with Austin at the time of the incident, leading him to believe there was nothing to it.
The police report said that on April 5 in Charlotte, Austin allegedly pushed a 25-year-old woman to the ground who was holding a baby, and then took her phone to prevent her from calling the cops. Neither the woman nor the baby were injured.
“There is a process to this. At the end of that process, I am confident that this will be clear to everybody is a non-issue,” Magazu said. “We need to let the process play out. We will have more in the coming days. . . .
“I’m very well aware of what happened and that’s why I know this is not going to be an ongoing issue.”
Austin turned himself in, and was released on $2,250 bond.
Whether he’ll be found guilty remains to be seen, but because he was a fringe player, he didn’t get much benefit of the doubt. He spent most of the last three years on the Lions practice squad, appearing in one game in 2013. But the Lions had paid him more than the base practice squad rate, to keep him from going to another team.
At least until he made them look bad.