Vikings release Jeff Gladney following felony domestic violence indictment

UPDATE: The Vikings have officially released Gladney following today’s indictment.

The team’s statement reads “Following our review of today’s indictment against Jeff Gladney, we have decided to release Jeff immediately. As we have previously said, we take these matters very seriously and condemn all forms of domestic violence. Due to the ongoing legal nature of the matter, we are unable to provide further comment.”

We’ll do something about the football implications of this later. Original story follows the break.

The grand jury has spoken in the Jeff Gladney case, and they have delivered the sort of news that will likely ensure that his remaining tenure with the Minnesota Vikings is measured in days (or perhaps even hours) rather than years.

According to Tyler Sullivan of CBS Sports, the Texas grand jury has indicted Gladney on one charge of felony domestic violence. The specific charge is third-degree family violence assault, and it is a charge that carries a sentence of up to ten years if Gladney is convicted.

The charges stemmed from an April incident between Gladney and his then-girlfriend. The two of them, according to reports, got into an argument about something that was on her phone. The charges accuse Gladney of hitting the woman, choking her, and dragging her to the ground by her hair.

Gladney’s accuser has also filed a civil lawsuit against him, claiming that Gladney “attempted to bribe, threaten, blackmail, and manipulate” her in order to get her to keep the situation quiet.

I’m sure that there are some sort of overarching salary cap implications to this, but at this point I’m not sure if anybody cares. Gladney is as entitled to due process as anyone, but given the nature of the charges I would be surprised if he is a member of the Minnesota Vikings for any longer than another day or two. We’ll obviously be monitoring the situation to see how it plays out, but it will likely be reaching its conclusion soon.