Days after releasing cornerback Cam Sutton in the wake of Florida authorities announcing a warrant for his arrest, Lions president Rod Wood revealed Monday that team officials spoke to him and encouraged him to turn himself in shortly after learning the news.
Wood said on Monday that Sutton had “showed up unexpectedly to work out” at the team’s facility in Allen Park last week the day team officials learned of the warrant via social media.
“We were able to talk to him in person — not me, but other members of the staff — and he left the building and we released him the next day and no one has spoken to him since,” Wood told Fox 2’s Dan Miller.
Wood said he was on a Zoom call with league officials when he learned of the matter and team officials were then able to “reach Cam and talk about it, and suggested that he get counsel and do the right thing to turn himself in,” he said, according to a report from the Detroit Free Press. Wood did not specify who spoke with Sutton.
“What he’s done is kind of up to him at this point,” Wood told Miller.
The club announced Sutton’s release Thursday afternoon, a day after the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced the 29-year-old is wanted in Florida for domestic battery by strangulation stemming from an incident that occurred in the early-morning hours of March 7. Police have since been unable to contact Sutton, whose whereabouts are reportedly unknown.
He was due a base salary of $10.5 million this coming fall, which had become guaranteed days before his warrant was issued. Wood said Monday the organization has filed to void the guarantees in contract, according to the Free Press report.
"I want to make sure everybody knows that 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, per the report.
Wood noted Sutton was released with a post-June 1 designation, which “will allow us to deal with whatever the cap implications are over two seasons vs. one,” Wood said.
“We’re going to let the process between us and him and the union play out to determine exactly what happens, but money was not on my mind when we made the decision,” the team president said.
Wood also said the team still has a zero-tolerance policy in effect for domestic violence, which was one of the reasons they were so quick to release him.
Sutton, who signed with Detroit last offseason, had one interception and 65 tackles across 17 starts last season and struggled down the stretch and into the playoffs.
This offseason the Lions have bolstered their secondary by signing free agent Amik Robertson, trading for Carlton Davis III and re-signing Emmanuel Moseley.