New England Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said Tuesday at the NFL Combine that the team is continuing to monitor the legal situations of WR Stefon Diggs and DT Christian Barmore.
Diggs pleaded not guilty to assault charges during an arraignment earlier this month. He’s due back in court on April 1 for a pre-trial hearing. The charges he’s facing stem from an alleged pay dispute with his live-in chef, who claims that the situation escalated to the point where Diggs “smacked her across the face,” according to the police report. Diggs allegedly also “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck.”
“We’ll just kind of see what comes of it,” said Wolf, the Patriots’ de facto general manager, per The Boston Globe’s Christopher Price. “We’re monitoring those situations, not only with our legal and security department but also with Stef’s people as well.”
Barmore is facing a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery on a household/family member. Barmore’s then-girlfriend alleges that on Aug. 8 an argument over the temperature of the house and food ultimately led to Barmore throwing her to the ground and grabbing her shirt in the neck area before letting her up, per WCVB TV in Boston, which cited court documents.
Wolf was asked, considering Barmore’s history of off-the-field issues, if he’s the kind of person that the Patriots want to keep investing in.
“Yeah, I mean, Christian has grown up quite a bit, and we continue to help him with that,” Wolf said, per Price.
“He continues to want to make improvements in that area. So, yeah, he’s continued to improve on the field. He had a little bit of a lull in the middle of the season there. He wasn’t playing quite as well, but, you know, [he] kicked it up again at the end and continues to be a key cog in there for us.”