When Bob Quinn was hired as General Manager of the Lions, he said the team would have a “zero tolerance” policy in place regarding acquiring players with histories of domestic violence and gun crimes.
He said neither he nor the team was “going to stand for” employing such players, but it didn’t take long before he went back on that policy. The Lions signed tight ends Orson Charles and Andrew Quarless, both of whom had been arrested on gun charges, before Quinn’s first offseason in his new job was over.
On Thursday, Quinn addressed that change of course. As you’d imagine after breaking his word to sign players who stuck around briefly in bids to be at the bottom of the roster, Quinn has rethought his initial approach to the topic.
“I thought about that, I honestly did,” Quinn said, via the Detroit Free Press. “I think every incident and every situation is different. I said that. It’s in black and white. Looking back, I probably should not have said that because the more you do research on each individual incident, what you read in the newspaper and on the Internet is actually sometimes not accurate.”
Quinn said he won’t shy away from adding other players who might be character risks if they can “help this football team,” which has long been the only absolute in place in front offices around the league.