PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN AND HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY PRESS AVAILABILITY
DB-NICK HARPER (general comments)Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"Personally, myself, I just want to apologize for my actions and say, 'Sorry' to my family for embarrassing them, the organization, (Colts President) Bill Polian, (Head) Coach (Tony Dungy), my teammates and the fans. My lawyers and the judiciary system are going to handle everything, and we'll just take it from there. Thank you."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (general comments)Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"As I (said) last week when we arrived at the facts on Mike Doss, we would take some action, so it's fair to say at this point that there will be a suspension forthcoming. We need to check some details with the league office to make sure we're in compliance with league policy. That's being done as we speak, and I expect that we'll have an announcement relative to however long the suspension may be, if not by the end of the week, certainly very soon thereafter. Relative to Nick Harper, the league policy is quite clear there. We've reported the incident in full, what we know of it, which isn't much at this point, to the appropriate league authorities. They're going to go forward as they always do in these situations and try to ascertain as best they can, the details. As soon as they're satisfied and we're satisfied that the appropriate steps have been taken, we'll take appropriate disciplinary action. As I said last week, we take a dim view of these things. We're going to move swiftly when they do occur. We do have an obligation, however, to make sure that the 'I's' are dotted and 'T's' are crossed with respect to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It makes no sense to take action that's overturned at a later date. So, we're in the process of doing that, and when we have all of the details established, we'll make the appropriate announcement. So, it will be very soon with respect to Mike Doss and probably a lot later with respect to Nick Harper."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (on how high the level of frustration is after trying to prevent such issues)Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"The level of disappointment is pretty high. I think you have to fight through the frustration. The immediate level is high, but you understand that people are human beings and they're going to make mistakes. You do what you can to rectify the mistakes. You do what you can to teach the proper behavior. In the end, as Mike said, a lot of the responsibility rests with the individual."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (on if the two situations are handled differently)Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"Doss is under the violence policy and the domestic issue is handled in a little different way. The end result is the same, and we'll abide by every single comma and semi-colon of the collective bargaining agreement. And at the same time, as I said in Doss' case, discipline is going to be swift and it's going to be strong."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (on if he believes the Colts' emphasize such issues enough)Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"I'm confident that we're doing the right things. I'm confident that we're doing the right things. I'm also confident that people are human beings and they're going to make mistakes from time to time. But if you look at our track record over time compared to other professional teams, compared to other professional leagues, compared to the NFL, we've been pretty good. We think we're doing the right things. We're going to continue to do it."
PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN (on if the Colts would prefer to act first and not leave it to the league)Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"We would prefer that the action be swift and send a strong message. Sometimes that's not possible because of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Certainly in Mike Doss' case, what I said last week is going to come to fruition and relatively soon. And by the standards of legal proceedings, swift would probably be the active description. As I said, in Nick's case, I'm not so sure because I don't have any facts whatsoever, and I don't know how long it will take to reach a finding of fact, which is the first threshold."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on moving on)Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"That's what we want to do. We want to determine what our sanction is going to be, what our consequences are, and then be ready to move on."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the Nick Harper situation)Tuesday, June 7, 2005
"I've talked to him. I've heard his viewpoint on things. He was apologetic for bringing this type of publicity to the team. And we all understand how bad that is. We are going to see what happens from here and we're going to try to gather all of the facts, which as (Colts President) Bill (Polian) mentioned may be a little harder or slower to ascertain than in Mike's situation. But when we do, we'll take the appropriate action."
