Sports

Lawyer Charged With Shoving Chicago Bears Owner

Thankfully no one (in the stands) got a concussion.

By Joe Patrice on December 17, 2014 2:16 pm

Apparently the New Orleans Saints’ manhandling of the Chicago Bears was not limited to the field Monday night. A New Orleans lawyer who showed up for the game in Chicago was ejected from the stadium and charged with battery after allegedly shoving Chicago Bears owner George McCaskey. Which is odd because you’d think it would be a Chicago fan who’d want to batter the guy who willfully gave Jay Cutler a 7-year, $126 million contract extension. Per Fox Sports:

McCaskey apparently arrived at the stadium for the game between his Bears and the Saints and when he reached his seats he found a gaggle of the Who Dat faithful sitting in them. There reportedly was a brief exchange before McCaskey headed up the stairs to fetch security.

At least McCaskey has seats accessible to ordinary fans instead of lording over the stadium in a private luxury suite like the reprehensible Jerry Jones.

That’s when things seemed to go south.

A 58-year-old man named Richard Kohnke decided not to act his age and apparently pushed McCaskey in the back. A Bears fan reportedly quickly came to McCaskey’s defense and tackled Kohnke. If you can believe this, Kohnke is an attorney from New Orleans. Per the repprt, Stadium security deemed him out of order, found him in contempt and ejected him from the stadium. Police said he was charged with simple battery.

Battery? Can’t we just give him 15 yards and call it even?

The 58-year-old man in question is Richard Kohnke, a defense lawyer and former senior prosecutor in Orleans parish (he’s also no stranger to football-related criminal cases, having played a starring role in the armed robbery trial of former star Tulane linebacker Trent Mackey). So if anyone should have recognized the risks of getting into a physical altercation in a stadium, it would be Kohnke. If he really shoved McCaskey from behind after the “brief verbal exchange” in the stands, Kohnke did something stupid.

The real question is: who would win in a fight between Kohnke and Ditka?

Not to defend pushing people from behind, but this sounds more like an outtake from Grumpy Old Men than Mean Streets. Does a shoving match between 50-somethings really rise to the level of criminal charges? Maybe that’s what Kohnke was thinking. But if it was, what he didn’t know was that McCaskey is a lawyer himself, having served as an assistant state attorney, so obviously this was going to rise to the level of criminal charges.[1]

And so it goes. The legal system swooped in to protect the head of a multimillion dollar sports enterprise from getting a love tap while his employees were mercilessly beaten on the field for fun and profit. Put aside your “assumption of risk” arguments, because that’s not the point — obviously players are getting paid (often underpaid, but paid) to get hit. The point is there’s a big divide between the toughness of those on the field and off and an even bigger divide between how the swiftly the law serves the heir to a sports franchise from getting a boo-boo and how it — manipulated by the league McCaskey serves — can throw enough roadblocks and second-guessing in front of concussed players to force them into non-settlement settlements.

Even if you aren’t in a luxury box, it’s good to be on the owners’ side of the game.

About Richard V. Kohnke [The Law Office of Richard V. Kohnke & Associates]
Bears owner McCaskey shoved by Saints fan at Soldier Field [Fox Sports]
Third day of armed robbery trial for Tulane linebacker proves contentious [The Advocate]


[1] By the way, their soon-to-be-former head coach is also a lawyer… this is one lawyered up organization.