Thursday 27 July 2017 18:18, UK
The Dallas Cowboys have refused to reverse their decision to cut receiver Lucky Whitehead after he was mistakenly accused of shoplifting.
Police in Virginia revealed on Tuesday that the shoplifting charge which was a case of mistaken identity.
"Upon reviewing the June 22, 2017 arrest of an individual named 'Rodney Darnell Whitehead, Jr.', the police department is confident that the man charged with petit larceny, and who is subsequently being sought on an active warrant for failure to appear in court, is not Lucky Whitehead of the Dallas Cowboys," Prince William County Police Sergeant Jonathan Perok said in a statement.
The department said it regretted the impact its errors had caused Whitehead and his family.
The Cowboys, who have seen a string of players arrested since the end of last season, wasted little time in saying Monday they would release Whitehead, a Virginia native, after reports that he was arrested for shoplifting on June 22 and had failed to appear for a scheduled court date earlier this month.
Whitehead insisted it was a case of mistaken identity, and his agent produced an airplane ticket that showed Whitehead was still in Dallas at the time of the alleged theft.
The police said the man who was arrested wasn't carrying identification, but gave his personal information verbally to officers.
Officers checked his information through the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles database and used the photo on file to compare to the man they had in custody.
"... Officers acted in good faith that, at the time, the man in custody was the same man matching the information provided. At this point, the police department is also confident in confirming that Mr Whitehead's identity was falsely provided to police during the investigation," the police statement said.
However, the Cowboys stuck with their decision to shed the 24-year-old, who spent the first two seasons of his NFL career with Dallas, playing primarily as a kick/punt returner.
"We have made a decision and moved on," Jones said six different times when questioned by reporters at the team's training camp.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said the club determined that a "clean slate" for Whitehead was in the best interest of the team and the player.
"Yesterday we made a decision that we thought was in the best interest of the Dallas Cowboys, and we stand by that decision," he said.
"He'll have a new opportunity somewhere else. That's good for him."
Whitehead, however, is not pleased to have been cut loose at a time when most rosters in the NFL are full.
"No one had my back," Whitehead told The Dallas Morning News. "I didn't even get to clear my name ... I was pretty much being called a liar."
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The regular season of home and away matches run from September to December 2017, culminating in PlayOffs from January 6, 2018 and the Super Bowl on February 4, 2018 at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minnesota to determine the world champion.
