Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy denies sex assault accusations
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy stretches during the team’s NFL football practice in Orchard Park, N.Y., on June 12.
LeSean McCoy, a running back for the Buffalo Bills, strongly denied allegations that spread on social media today that he had violently assaulted a woman.
“For the record, the totally baseless and offensive claims made against me are completely false,” McCoy said on his own social media accounts. “Further more, I have not had any direct contact with any of the people involved in months.”
McCoy’s statement was made a few hours after a photograph and a message were posted on Instagram showing what appeared to be a girlfriend of his, Delicia Cordon, with a bloodied face. The account appeared to belong to a friend of Cordon’s.
The message contained a range of allegations against McCoy. None of them could be independently corroborated as of Tuesday afternoon, and the NFL and the Bills did not respond to calls seeking comment.
McCoy entered the NFL in 2009 and played his first six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles before joining the Bills.
Allegations of domestic violence by players and others in the NFL have dogged the league for several years. The league was strongly criticized in 2014 for not adequately investigating cases, and accused of giving mild penalties to players found to have committed domestic violence.
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The most prominent case involved the former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was given a two-game suspension after video surfaced showing him dragging his fiancee out of an elevator in a hotel in Atlantic City. Facing withering criticism, Commissioner Roger Goodell strengthened the league’s rules to include a minimum of a six-game suspension. A few weeks later, new video was published showing Rice knocking out his fiancée. Goodell suspended Rice a second time, indefinitely.
The NFL later had to reinstate Rice because it had suspended him twice for the same violation.
The league has also been accused of mishandling cases involving running back Adrian Peterson, defensive end Greg Hardy and other players. In 2016, the league suspended Giants punter Josh Brown for one game despite having access to documents that showed he had abused his wife.
