In sworn testimony, former head coach Steve Wilks acknowledged that he was instructed to use a burner phone to contact suspended general manager Steve Keim while Keim was imprisoned in 2018 for drunk driving.
Wilks said that he was given instructions to stay in touch with Keim even though he was legally forbidden to do so from both Keim and team owner Michael Bidwill, according to Tisha Thompson of ESPN.com. Wilks added that Keim kept in touch with Bidwill and other executives during his suspension.
The testimony was given in the arbitration action brought by Terry McDonough, a former Cardinals official, who claimed that Bidwill had told him and Wilks to keep in touch with Keim.
What does it mean for Steve Wilks in general
In a statement issued by Cardinals to ESPN it was stated
“As much as we would like to share the truth of what transpired, the confidentiality order in place prohibits us from doing so,”
Thompson notes that the Cardinals’ legal counsel have not yet questioned Wilks. But what are they going to do, really? hound him till he admits to lying?
Wilks, who is currently the defensive coordinator for the 49ers, claimed that he only ever used his backup phone to get in touch with Keim once, to inquire about how practice was going.
“With me being a first-year head coach, I felt uncomfortable from the beginning that I worked this hard to get to this plateau and this opportunity, and then I was presented with this situation with being unethical,”
“No one retrieved the burner phones until Keim came back, so it wasn’t swift,”
“As soon as he picked up, it was just cuss words and how embarrassed he was about the game and can’t really, you know, bring friends or take anybody in the box,” Wilks said. His son later asked, “Daddy, why is that guy talking to you like that?”
Regarding McDonough’s charges against Bidwill, the league has been quiet. If/when the story gets enough attention, Mary Jo White might be enlisted to conduct an investigation of Bidwill’s conduct while working. Anything may happen after that, if that ever happens.
