Report: Cowboys' Spillman under investigation for sexual assault

Dallas Cowboys safety C.J. Spillman is under police investigation for an alleged sexual assault on a woman at the team's hotel in Texas on Sept. 20, according to the New York Daily News.

“We have a sexual assault report we are investigating at this time, and it does involve C.J. Spillman,” Grapevine police spokesman Sgt. Robert Eberling said. "He is involved in the investigation. We are looking into the matter."

Spillman appeared in the Cowboys' Sept. 21 game against the St. Louis Rams, a day after the alleged assault took place.

Gloria Allred, a civil rights attorney, reportedly sent NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a letter on Sept. 26 claiming that her client filed a police report alleging that an NFL player had raped her. Allred didn't name Spillman specifically, but did say the accused met with the police. 

"Thereafter, the accused was then allowed by his team to play the following day," Allred's letter said. "We have asked the NFL whether or not this alleged rape was reported to them and if they approved this accused individual's playing in the game notwithstanding the allegations that had been made against him."

Although Allred declined to comment on Spillman's investigation, she did respond to a request NFL lawyers made to interview her client.

In considering whether our client will or will not be agreeable to meeting with your representative we would like to be assured that the NFL is acting in good faith and that it is conducting an investigation which encompasses not only the rape allegations but also why the player and the team involved did not report these matters immediately to the NFL as required by your NFL Personal Conduct Policy.

In other words, my client and I are not an NFL team and the NFL does not get to make all the rules in this situation. This is not a game of football or a sporting competition. It is real life and it concerns a serious allegation of sexual violence against a young woman.