Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk didn’t mince words. He thinks the Pittsburgh Steelers decision to sign cornerback Cam Sutton is pathetic and desperate.
“I don’t get what the Steelers are doing here. Other than we had this guy for six years, we got him cheap. He’s a starting corner. We got him cheap. And we’ll just deal with this crap. And it’s a lot of crap,” Florio said during a segment on PFT Live. “And it’s a bad look for the Steelers that they gave this guy a second chance.”
Sutton was released by the Detroit Lions earlier this offseason following an arrest on a felony domestic violence charge. That charge was later downgraded to a misdemeanor and Sutton entered a pre-trial diversion program.
Sutton, 29, was originally drafted by the Steelers out of Tennessee in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft. He played six seasons for the Steelers from 2017-22.
Per the Tampa Bay Times, the probable cause affidavit stated: “During the argument, Sutton picked up the woman and slammed her into a wall, then bit her on the neck, leaving a quarter-sized abrasion that bled. . . . Sutton then grabbed the woman by the face and neck and choked her, causing her to briefly lose consciousness. . . . The altercation continued into the living room of the home, where Sutton held down the woman by her hair and struck her twice with his fist, causing a knot to form on the woman’s forehead.”
Lions team president Rod Wood said that when the club learned of the outstanding warrant, Sutton was actually in the building. The Lions released him immediately. Sutton turned himself in 10 days after his release.
“You either care about this stuff or you don’t,” Florio said. “And the Lions do. The Lions cut him right away! The Lions didn’t wait for anything. You’re gone. They gave him all that signing bonus money. You’re gone, that’s it. Bye-bye. Steelers say come on home.”
Florio also took issue with Sutton harping on “adversity” during his interview with the media at OTAs on Wednesday.
“He’s almost characterizing himself as a victim. ‘We all go through adversity.’ Some adversity is set upon us,” Florio said. “Some adversity we create by the things we do.”
Florio, who’s a former lawyer, also gave his take on if the NFL will suspend Sutton based on the NFL’s personal conduct policy on domestic violence. Punishment for violation of the personal conduct policy involving domestic violence is typically at least six games.
“If he goes into a pretrial diversion program, then he is subject to discipline,” Florio told Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller on 93.7 The Fan. “But again, you have to ask the question of how aggressively the alleged victim will cooperate. They’re gonna be left with whatever the facts are that he’s admitted to in order to get into that diversion program.”