Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn never considered firing his good friend Matt Patricia as head coach after reports first surfaced that Patricia was accused of sexual assault as a college undergrad.
Quinn, in his first public comments since the Patricia accusations came to light last May, said Friday he was "very comfortable" keeping Patricia as coach, after Patricia first came to him to tell him about the incident last spring.
“I first found out about it a couple days before the article came out," Quinn said. "Matt had got wind that the article was going to come out and he came and told me. So we had extensive conversations with myself, ownership, (president) Rod (Wood) about everything, and then we put out that statement back in May about our support for Matt and that’s kind of how it went down."
Patricia was accused of sexual assault during a spring break trip to South Padre Island, Texas, in 1996. He was indicted for the crime but never prosecuted, and said in a news conference days after the allegations first surfaced that he was "falsely accused."
The Lions issued a joint statement from Quinn, Wood and owner Martha Ford at the time, saying the incident did not show up on Patricia's standard pre-employment background check, and that the organization stood behind him as coach.
"For a high-level position, we do an extensive background check on everybody and nothing came up, so that’s kind of how we go through those processes," Quinn said.
Asked if it should have, given that it was public record and easily found in a LexisNexis search, Quinn said, "Listen, I’m not paid to do extensive background checks, I’m here to select a head coach, and I’m very comfortable with Matt Patricia as our head coach."
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