NFL teams face a high-stakes offseason as a Detroit rookie's kidnapping charges and a Dallas draft trade spotlight the thin line between stardom and life imprisonment.
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys and the rest of the NFL teams have entered the most frightening portion of the league's schedule.
That is to say, the five weeks between the end of minicamp and the start of training camp, when there is nothing scheduled at all.
Around here, we used to call it "Jason Garrett vs. Lew Sterrett.'' Garrett, of course, was the straight-laced Cowboys head coach for a decade. Lew Sterrett is the jail in downtown Dallas.
Better for players to conduct themselves in a Garrett way rather than a Sterrett way ... Get it?
Now, under coach Brian Schottenheimer, the hopes - and the nervousness - are about to reach that same high level.
Often, this is a time for family, travel, and relaxation as players get recharged for what will be a grueling training camp.
However, for some, this is often a trouble-plagued time, as they get on the wrong side of the law, and things can get a little messy. Or problems arise that bring unwanted attention to the player and team.
As I recently put in on my Fish Cowboys Report, more urging caution than being sarcastic: "We're talking about millionaires in their 20's who have been guided along in how to behave since they were discovered at age 8 to 'be special.' And now they have four or five weeks of unsupervised free time?
"What could go wrong?''
Well, plenty. Ask the Detroit Lions.
As it happens, the horrific tale involving Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold occurred in February, not in late-June/early-July. But the point is the same.
Arnold, a budding star in Detroit, was in Florida, where he owns an Airbnb. The cornerback initially reported to the police that he had been a victim of theft – $200,000 in "personal items" was stolen from his place.
But then Arnold allegedly arranged his own retaliation ... and is now accused of coordinating a robbery and kidnapping plot in which three people allegedly were lured to an apartment where they were pistol-whipped and held at gunpoint.
They were questioned by Arnold and his associates about their role in the theft of Arnold's items, and one of the accused aggressors supposedly filmed the incident on FaceTime.
And now? Arnold and four co-defendants are currently in jail without bond.
In a press release this week, the Florida state attorney's office announced Arnold will face "multiple felony charges which carry a potential sentence of up to life in prison."
The first Cowboys-related ironic twist here?
Arnold was a first-round pick by the Lions in the 2024 NFL Draft with the No. 24 pick. But that happened only after Dallas traded that slot to Detroit in exchange for picks Nos. 29 and 73.
Detroit got the Alabama star; Dallas ended up using its new picks to select two offensive line starters, Oklahoma tackle Tyler Guyton and Kansas State center Cooper Beebe.
So, at the risk of making light of a very serious issue, as one wag put it, "The Cowboys dodged a bullet.''
The second twist? Cowboys management knows this sort of sordid incident could happen to them.
This time of the year comes with a lot of trepidation from coaches and staff as the players are "on their own,'' as Arnold, 23, was on that fateful February day, without the structure of meetings, practices, and everything in between.
Consider June 2025, when three notable former Cowboys were in the news: Greg Hardy for a domestic violence arrest, Pacman Jones for disorderly conduct and public intoxication, and Kelvin Joseph, who was charged in a Dallas-area crash that killed a motorcyclist.
Also last July, All-Pro returner KaVontae Turpin was arrested on misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana and unlawful carrying of a weapon.
And the Cowboys acknowledge all of this, planning to avoid management having to field that dreaded phone call from the police station.
"We have two rules," Schottenheimer said last week, in a message he surely shared with his team as minicamp at The Star ended. "The first one is, 'Be on time.' The second one is 'Always protect the team.'
"That's an easy way of saying, make good decisions, be smart, think before you go out, before you travel, before you pack your bag and head to the airport. Just know what you're putting in your bag. I think that's all real.
"Just making good decisions. So, protect the team. We're going to need everybody to go where we're going this year and to chase the championship that we want to chase and win so badly.
"So, they have to think about their teammates, their brothers, before they think about themselves."
That's smart advice ... but delivered too late for Terrion Arnold to take.
