REMEMBER JEFF DARLINGTON’S REPORTS BEFORE YOU THINK SCHEFFLER IS RIGHT
The legal push is on to dismiss bookings against the world’s No. 1 golfer, who will be vindicated in Louisville because the detective wasn’t wearing a body camera — when ESPN witnessed the scene
I don’t trust the police department. Neither should Jeff Darlington of ESPN. At some point soon, if not already, he’ll be asked by an attorney — maybe representing detective Bryan Gillis — why the department in Louisville is setting up the officer for a legal fall. It was Darlington, the reporter, who watched the scene when Scottie Scheffler was trying to drive a PGA Championship car through emergency vehicles on Shelbyville Road.
And it was Darlington who reported last week that Gillis told Scheffler to stop, an order intially ignored by the world’s No. 1 golfer as he drove “10 to 20 yards” toward the entrance of Valhalla Golf Club. From there, according to Darlington, Gillis grabbed Scheffler’s arm and pulled him out of the car. He went on television and the radio and continued to voice what he saw and what he knew. I trust Darlington. So do the athletes he covers. So did the ESPN senior writer who filed the story online. I have no reason to doubt anything he reports on the NFL or apprehensions.
Wrote Gillis on an official form about Scheffler’s arrest: “While directing traffic in front of Gate 1 the PGA personnel stopped a bus from entering Gate 1. I observed a vehicle traveling in the opposing lanes coming at me. I stopped the driver and advised him he could not proceed because of the bus. He demanded to be let in, and proceeded forward against my directions. I was dragged/knocked down by the driver. I then proceeded to arrest the driver.”
My choice is to ask why Scheffler hadn’t stopped his car, in a dire accident in which a tournament volunteer was struck by a bus and lost his life, when his first-round tee time was hours away. Whether the driver is Joe the Trucker or Tiger Woods, this was a place for perspective, peace and a pause until a police officer waved Scheffler into the club. No one is questioning that Scheffler’s speedometer was not at zero.
But Thursday, in a town that sanctioned police body cameras after Breonna Taylor’s killing, Scheffler realized he’ll receive a legal break he might not deserve. Gillis was reprimanded and received “corrective action” because he didn’t wear his camera when approaching Scheffler — or at least according to police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel. “As required by our policy,” she said. “He was performing a law-enforcement action as defined in our policy. Further, section 4.31.7 states members will maintain their BWC in constant state of operational readiness. Detective Gillis should have turned on his body-worn camera but did not. His failure to do so is a violation of LMPD policy on uniforms and equipment.”
In that sense, Gillis caused a problem. But what about Darlington’s spot-on account? Does that not matter? He reported what we all read and heard that day. It defends, in a large degree, that Scheffler was wrong to turn into the club’s entrance. If the detective didn’t wear a body camera, his flaw shouldn’t excuse Scheffler from answering why he moved forward to work inside a gym before his round. One police video released from a street pole camera indeed showed Scheffler’s SUV steering into the club’s entrance. An officer, presumably Gillis, ran toward him and flung his arm at the driver’s side window. That is true, as Darlington reported. What we didn’t see is something Darlington also reported: Gillis was dragged down by Scheffler as he attached himself to the car. Is he making it up? Or was it conveniently purged?
This is how 2024 life works, folks. If you happen to be the PGA and Scheffler and his attorney, Steven Romines, you can hang his innocence on the lack of a camera. “Our position is the same as it was last Friday, Scottie Scheffler didn’t do anything wrong,” Romines said. “We’re not interested in settling the case. We’ll either try it or it will be dismissed. It's very simple. All the evidence that continues to come out just continues to support what Scottie said all along: This was a chaotic situation and miscommunication, and he didn't do anything wrong.”
Except, he crossed the road when he should have crammed the gearshift to park.
If Scheffler is smart, he’ll demand a quick end as the U.S. Open approaches and he tries to resume his rule of the sport. The Louisville mayor is ready. “We are all looking to move forward,” Craig Greenberg said. “I know there are a lot of questions right now from every member of the media here and people across the entire city. We have to respect the legal process, and that's what we are going to do. And we're going to let that play out. We want to move forward. Mr. Scheffler has made it clear that he wants to be moved forward. And I know that everyone else involved, that LMPD, wants to move forward.”
LMPD is the Louisville Metro Police Department. They want to thank Scheffler and apologize that he finished tied for eighth in the tournament. But if I’m Gillis and my superiors suddenly want to fire me, I’m calling Darlington. And if the Disney a-holes scream in the legal department, file your own lawsuit and send a deposition to the reporter who saw it all and did his job. ESPN tends to bully up and might threaten him. I’m watching, closely, and other media should do the same.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.