The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Puzzles  |  Sports  |  Television  |  Videogames
ted-kennedy-memorial-1000

Bagged Ben

Sexual-assault charges hit the Steel City. Plus, money-saving tips from Chris Nilan.
By MATT TAIBBI  |  July 29, 2009

090731_ben_main
ROOM SERVICE? Ben Roethlisberger may have committed an offensive foul in Lake Tahoe.

Hard to know what to think about the Ben Roethlisberger story. In the annals of sex-harassment accusations, it is not among the most convincing; not only did the plaintiff never go to authorities, she waited a full year to make her case public. However — and this is a big however — it's not like this woman, Andrea McNulty, an employee of the Harrah's Lake Tahoe hotel, didn't tell anybody about the case. In fact, there is considerable evidence that something happened to her on or around July 11, 2008, when Roethlisberger was a guest at the hotel.

The timeline goes something like this: in July of last year, Super Bowl–winning Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Roethlisberger checked in to the hotel to play in the American Century celebrity golf tournament. On July 10, he met McNulty and had a conversation with her, apparently about fishing. The next night, Roethlisberger asked her up to his room to fix his television. According to the complaint, he was dressed in T-shirt and shorts when she came up to the room; she alleges that, at that point, he forced himself on her.

So far it reads a little like the Kobe Bryant story, but where it diverges it what happens next. McNulty says she told the Harrah's hotel security chief, Guy Hyder, about the assault on July 12. He allegedly ignored her. Later, she was told that she would be fired by Harrah's president John Koster if she went public with the accusations. McNulty ultimately had to be hospitalized for depression and PTSD. When she returned to work, she had an emotional scene in public with a pit boss, which led to her being placed on leave. Later, after another stint in a hospital, McNulty was approved to go back to work — but a delay in the start date caused her health insurance to be canceled.

McNulty finally decided to file suit after what she describes as continued harassment from Harrah's. The kicker may have been Roethlisberger agreeing to come to the same golf tournament again this year.

Roethlisberger has loudly and publicly denied the allegations, insisting in a breathless news conference (in which he would not take questions) that nothing happened, that he will not discuss his private life in public, and that the accusations are an "attack" on him and his family. He is clearly going to fight this thing to the last second.

McNulty's decision not to go to the authorities is not necessarily illogical, given what allegedly happened with Harrah's afterward. There is a very plausible scenario whereby McNulty clearly could not go public without losing her job, which makes this a workplace-harassment case, as well. In fact, the guess here is that this is going to end very badly for Harrah's almost regardless of what kind of evidence surfaces — if indeed the company pressured her to stay quiet, or threatened her job, that almost makes them complicit in any attack that may or may not have occurred.

Adding to the controversy is ESPN's curious decision not to cover the story. "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" ' excuse was that there was no criminal complaint, but that doesn't really hold water, since they've covered solely civil suits before, with recent cases involving Shannon Brown and Adam Jones (who are both black) being the best examples. If this thing breaks wrong, ESPN could be dealing with accusations of both sexism and racism. At the very least, it sounds like someone should be talking about what happens to women who make allegations like this against famous people — not that most football fans want to hear it. More on this later, obviously — no points until it goes the distance.

The gloves come off
Here's a story we'll be following up on later, for sure. Former hockey goon Chris "Knuckles" Nilan was busted last week after he bloodied two loss-prevention agents from Lord & Taylor who had caught him trying to smuggle a Tommy Bahama swimsuit out under his shorts.

This story is close to my heart personally because it occurred in the South Shore Plaza, the mall I used to visit regularly as a kid. Give 21 points to the Boston-born ex-Bruin Nilan, whose post-arrest quote — "I just wanted to save a few bucks" — is destined for the sports-crime pantheon.

Matt Taibbi can be reached at m_taibbi@yahoo.com.

Related: Stopping Traffic, Personal fouls, Big trouble in little Carolina, More more >
  Topics: Sports , Crime, National Football League, Cecil Collins,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

Best Music Poll 2009 winners
BMP_WINNERS_AD
Today's Event Picks
ARTICLES BY MATT TAIBBI
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   FALL GUYS  |  September 02, 2009
    No shortage of sports-crime activity this week — in fact, it's been an extremely busy time, so much so that it's worth a bullet-point to get to some of the developments in brief.
  •   SMEAR TACTICS  |  August 26, 2009
    In the world of sports crime, there are two kinds of arrests. In the first, an athlete causes a public scene in some way, the police come, and the athlete is eventually squeezed into the back of a cruiser and taken away. The other kind of crime happens outside of public view.
  •   MAGIC MAN  |  August 19, 2009
    Magic mushrooms may make for amusing Eminem lyrics, but are not and never have been a strong theme in the ongoing sports-crime story.
  •   GOING STREAKING  |  August 12, 2009
    It has been an unusually quiet week or so in sports crime, which is perhaps not unexpected, since this is the one time of year when the most arrest-prone class of athletes in America — NFL players — are sequestered in training camps and usually too dog-tired from two-a-days and running suicides to bother to punch out bar skanks or kick in police cruiser windows.
  •   STOPPING TRAFFIC  |  August 05, 2009
    North Dakota might not be the first place you think of when it comes to sports crime, but if the players up there maintain their recent pace, we might soon be listing the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux alongside such infamous programs as the University of Miami Hurricanes and the Florida State University Seminoles.

 See all articles by: MATT TAIBBI

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group