Cardinals rookie Christian Kirk is facing some legal trouble over an incident that occurred more than two months before the team selected him with a second-round pick in this year's NFL Draft.
According to the Arizona Republic, Kirk has been charged with criminal damage for an alleged incident that took place outside of the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Feb. 3. According to police, a witness saw Kirk and some of his friends throwing rocks at cars, which led to damage on at least one of the vehicles.
"The suspects were intoxicated and leaving the WMPO," Scottsdale Police said. "As they were walking through a parking lot, security personnel observed them throwing rocks at cars and breaking a window of at least one of them."
Of course, it's not clear how reliable that witness was.
From Christian Kirk incident report: The person police cited as their source was lying on a bench & not watching while the van window was broken. The person said he saw Kirk and a friend throwing rocks at other cars, seeing them walk away. No damage was reported on other cars.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 14, 2018
The case against Kirk is still pending.
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On the Cardinals' end, the team apparently already knew about the arrest and decided to draft him anyway. The former Texas A&M receiver was the 47th overall pick in the draft. The selection of Kirk marked just the second time in 13 years that the Cards had used a first- or second-round pick on a wide receiver.
"We spoke with Christian about it at length and also looked into it independently," the team said in a statement. "Our understanding is that the process will be resolved in the near future but while it remains an active legal matter, we won't comment further."
The one thing that's not surprising about this case is that Kirk was with friends. The 21-year-old is from the Phoenix-area (Scottsdale) and went to high school in Arizona before heading to Texas A&M for college. After the Cardinals' first day of rookie camp on May 11, Kirk was actually asked if it might be a distraction having so many friends in the area.
"All my friends that I have with me, that are close to me, know my mission and what I'm trying to do," Kirk said, via NFL.com. "They let me be. They're there for encouragement. They're there for me when I need them. They're good. They're never bugging me. They let me go to work and do my business and when it's time for me to go and hang out with them, they're always open-armed."
As for the case, Kirk is not known to have any other legal issues in his past.
