TTC Exclusive: The "Cup N Cut" - The Curious Case of Kugler and Keim

Week 11 in the 2022 NFL season had a number of close and competitive games that excited NFL fans around the globe. The Mexico City game played by the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals was not one of those games. Despite being the closest franchise to the border and Mexico City, The Arizona Cardinals had the minority of fans in the stadium and were unable to muster any kind of offense with Colt McCoy under center and the Red birds were blown out 38-10 and fell to 4-7 on the season.

"Another blowout loss by the Arizona Cardinals" was the headline that was published en masse after the game. Not at Trade The Cardinals. We learned of a different more salacious story that could expose the corruption within the Arizona Cardinals organization. As stated in Denny Greens week 11 review, "Cardinals Search for Keys Amidst Collapse", the Cardinals offensive line coach and running game coordinator, Sean Kugler, was dismissed from the team and sent home before the game was ever played. Kugler had allegedly groped a female security guard the night before the game and swift and severe action was taken by Steve Keim and the Cardinals organization. And that was the end of that. No headlines, no breaking reports. Simple and decisive action taken before any evidence would emerge for an alleged grope. Another black eye swiftly covered under the rug for the league with a history of covering for personnel.

Something about this story didn't add up so we decided to open an investigation for the now infamous "Cup N Cut". Now in week 15 we feel that there is enough information to expose the potential corruption within the Arizona Cardinals organization and inform our readers of what potentially occurred in Mexico City that fateful night.

On 12/16/2022 Shields Petite Employment Law provided a statement regarding their latest case. Who were they representing? None other than former offensive line coach and running game coordinator, Sean Kugler. In their request for arbitration they cite multiple claims against the Arizona Cardinals who dismissed Kugler for unsubstantiated allegations that he allegedly touched a female security guard.

"The allegations against Coach Kugler are simply untrue and have caused Sean, his wife and family enormous personal and professional damage," stated Michael Petitti, Shields Petitti. "Coach and his family have been desperate to understand from the Cardinals front office and others what rationale or evidence was used to terminate him for cause." - Shields Petite Employment Law statement

Their statement would go on to state that, "The Cardinals dismissed Kugler from the organization without conducting a thorough investigation or interviewing him."

The Cardinals dismissed Kugler without even interviewing him? This peaked our attention and we knew that our suspicions may be confirmed true. Sean Kugler's personal statement included in the request is as follows: "Respecting women is a core value for me, and something I have instilled in my children and the players that I coach. The mysterious allegations by the Cardinals are untrue, and I want to clear my name. Be it a miscommunication or mistaken identity, my family and I will cooperate fully and honestly with the NFL, Cardinals, or any other agency to get to the truth in this matter and restore my reputation. There are incredible people that work in the game – from league level to my players, fellow coaches, and incredible support staff. I simply want to get back to doing what I love, and would like my family to have peace."

Now let me ask you this. Do these two men look similar to you?

Is it possible that Kugler was the fall guy for Keim's own crime? Could Keim be so corrupt that when he received the call from the hotel regarding his own crime that he knew he had find a scapegoat? Was this why he fired his doppelgänger? Is this why he hired his doppelgänger? Why would Keim fire Kugler without even interviewing him?

This may seem like loose speculation and we thought so to. Extreme speculation. Reckless speculation even. Until we saw this report from NFL Insider Ian Rapport, "An indefinite health-related leave of absence for general manager Steve Keim, a situation that has been developing really over the course of the last several weeks and several months for the Arizona Cardinals. He steps away, no timetable for his return," Rapoport said on NFL Network.

A developing situation for weeks and months? An indefinite leave of absence announced on the same day the request for arbitration was filed? A curious case indeed. Steve Keim's reckless and selfish decision making has reared its ugly head before when he was arrested for an extreme DUI in the summer of 2018. Is this perhaps another instance of that same selfishness? If there's smoke, is there fire?

So, did Keim's corruption kill Kugler's career? Perhaps. But perhaps Keim has just been really bad at his job due to whatever has led to his leave-of-absence. There are loads of men who are fat, bald, and have goatees. Many such men attend football games. Is Keim the type of guy do go for a grope? We're reaching out to all the biddies we know in Scottsdale as to what they think on that. One fact is clear though from the reports and on-field results and that is Keim has been bad at his job of late. Not conducting an interview with Kugler after the allegation is another product of his failing leadership of late. Cutting Kugler was surely one of the safest routes possible. Allegations of sexual harassment are taken much more serious these days, as they should be, and retribution is often swift for organizations and individuals who fail to take the correct action. Take action now, cut him, and apologize later if wrong. Perhaps that was Keim's thinking. The alternative being to keep him and conduct an investigation with the possibility of more reports arising to confirm the incident in Mexico City. Perhaps Keim just didn't want to have another distraction hanging around a slipping team so he fired Kugler instead of looking into it much. That is terrible decision by Keim if that were the case since as we see now Kugler's reputation is tarnished regardless of what actually happens going forward. We're not sure we'll ever know what really happened in Mexico City and if we are to go off the history of the NFL in such matters we suspect this will all be handled privately by a handful of people and most of the truth and findings swept under the rug.

What we do know is that we have heard from our intern who has just landed safely in Mexico City. We are counting on him to find out more and to meet up with our contacts. He said he spoke Spanish fluently on his resume so if he was lying he's sure to be in a tight spot. He did learn to read Gorilla though so we think that's a good sign. In any regards, he seemed pretty nervous when we gave him the plane tickets. Please keep him in your prayers.

We will continue updating our readers with this breaking story whenever there are new updates.

Link to the Shields Petitti found below:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shields-petitti-file-request-for-arbitration-with-the-national-football-league-on-behalf-of-coach-sean-kugler-301704949.html