The New York Giants might not make it through this offseason without an off the field controversy, but this one doesn’t have to do with players. Controversies about staff are rarer but they do happen, and this looks like one of them.
Specifically, a lawsuit has been filed against the team by former video director Dave Maltese according to ESPN.
Dave Maltese was fired in March for what the suit describes as “retaliatory purposes” in violation of CEPA, New Jersey’s whistleblower statute. He claims this was a result of the complaint and report he filed following an alleged physical assault and attack he witnessed by current Giants director of football data and innovation Ty Siam against assistant video director Steven Venditti.
The lawsuit also claims that there was a pervasive culture of violence within the Giants organization. That, apparently, stretches all the way back into the early 2000s. The lawsuit mentions a separate case from 2004, when former video director John Mancuso claims that assistant O-line coach Dave DeGuglielmo ragefully tackled him.
Fans will of course recognize DeGuglielmo’s name because he filled in as the main offensive line coach for the Giants last season after Marc Colombo’s firing. He’d enter the offseason in contention to take over the job full time, but ultimately decided to head to the college ranks where he was hired to the same position by Louisiana Tech.
The Giants have already released a statement calling the claims meritless.
Many in the fanbase will likely assume the same thing and decide that this is just a case of a disgruntled employee trying to get back at their former employer, and there is a chance that this situation is something along those lines. For now, though, we don’t know.
This is just the beginning of the lawsuit and neither side has gotten a chance to properly argue their case either legally or in the court of public opinion. Just like we saw with the DeAndre Baker case last year, legal battles can have plenty of twists and turns and the result isn’t always the expected one.
The truth in this one isn’t clear, but it is a situation to keep an eye on going forward as it develops further.