Cam Sutton was working out at Lions' facility when news of arrest warrant broke

Orlando, Fla. — Detroit Lions president Rod Wood was on a conference call with the league regarding an unrelated matter on March 20 when he learned, along with the rest of the world, that starting cornerback Cam Sutton was wanted in Florida on an alleged domestic violence incident.

Wood wrapped up the meeting and quickly got together with the team's other leaders. Within that process, the team called Sutton — who had been in town a day before the alleged March 7 incident for a team event. As it turned out, he was in the building that morning.

“He was actually in our building (when the news broke),” team president Rod Wood said in an interview with Fox 2 at the league meetings Monday. “We found him. He was down with our strength staff. He just kind of showed up, unexpectedly, to work out. We were able to talk to him in person — not me, but other members of the staff — and he left the building."

Wood said the team advised Sutton to do the right thing: to obtain legal counsel and turn himself in. When it became clear that wasn't going to happen, the Lions made the decision to release the cornerback the following day. There's been no contact between the team and Sutton in the days since.

The Lions released Sutton with cause and with a June 1 designation, which mitigates the immediate salary-cap ramifications. A player has the opportunity to challenge whether cause was justified, but it's the starting point to negating any guaranteed money remaining in the player's contract. In Sutton's case, his $10.5 million salary in 2024 was otherwise guaranteed for skill and injury.

Years earlier, under former owner Martha Firestone Ford, the Lions established a zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence. Wood said that was a factor in the team's decision to release Sutton, even if the legal process has yet to play out. He said any potential salary-cap ramifications were not considered.

"First of all, I want to make sure everybody knows, we didn't release him because of anything related to the cap or money that we may owe him. It was the right thing to do for the organization," Wood said. "We did release him with a post-June 1 designation, which will allow us to deal with whatever the cap implications are over two seasons versus one. And we're going to let the process between us, him and the union play out to determine exactly what happens. But money was not on my mind when we made our decisions. 

jdrogers@detroitnews.com

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