Emanuel Acho is known for his hot takes as a sports analyst. Everything was going fine until one of his controversial claims led his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles’ head of security, into trouble. To search for the truth, the NFL has already started investigating the Eagles’ head of security, Dom DiSandro, leaving former Philadelphia player Asante Samuel upset with Acho’s hunger for attention.
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“Like I said before, watch who you do business with,” Samuel wrote on X, resharing Philadelphia Eagles Central report on September 9. “We have an investigation going on because fool is dying for attention and a gossip queen smfh.”
Things blew up a month ago, in August, when Acho, on his Speakeasy podcast, made a claim that an employee from one of his former teams offered to get him out of trouble by ordering a team-friendly police officer.
Apparently, Acho had rear-ended another driver on his way to practice and called one of the security officers of a team he played for help. The officer summoned a team-friendly cop to get him out of the incident.
By his admission, Acho quoted the officer giving him reassurances: “Acho, when the cop shows up, send the cop away. I’m going to send you another cop. And that other cop is going to say it wasn’t your fault. It was their fault.”
Very well aware of the consequences, Acho decided to mask the name. However, the city and year in which this shocking incident took place aren’t particularly hard to pin down. Acho had already let out other details besides DiSandro’s name.
According to him, the off-ramp he was exiting was close enough to the facility that his teammates could see him being pulled over. The Google Maps were enough to connect the dots. Acho’s NFL career spanned across three teams, including Cleveland and New York, with him joining Philadelphia twice, second and last.
The latest on this is that the NFL is firmly on it.
“The NFL is still investigating Eagles head of security Dom DiSandro based on comments made by Emmanuel Acho on his Speakeasy Podcast back in early August,” Derrick Gunn posted on Wednesday. “Acho who played for 3 NFL teams never mentioned a name . But it has been widely speculated he was referring to Big Dom.”
Reasons for the NFL to pick DiSandro to investigate?
Among the maps of three facilities, the chances are high for New York and Philadelphia. It then comes to the longevity of his tenure, with him staying with the Giants for only 42 days, making the Eagles far more likely. Along with this, it coincides with DiSandro’s long tenure as the Eagles’ chief security officer.
He joined the Eagles in 1999 as the Assistant to the Chief Security Officer Butch Buchanico. Over the years, his commitment and sincerity in his job earned him titles like Director of Gameday Coaching Operations.
Because of his protective nature, players affectionately call him Big Dom. Even though he is a private person who is away from the media spotlight, he is often captured by cameras, protecting Eagles players at events outside team games, too, including 76ers and Phillies games. At times, while doing his job, he did land in controversy. For instance, he was suspended after he got into a skirmish with 49ers Linebacker Dre Greenlaw.
However, even then, the Eagles general manager Howie Roseman always appreciated DiSandro.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’s the best in the National Football League, and in my opinion all of sports, at what he does,” he said. “His ability to not only gather information but have a feel for people. And then we just have to make judgments. In those situations, those are a little more subjective, and that’s based on all the information we get.”
Already under the NFL’s radar with the confrontation with Greenlaw in 2023, this time DiSandro might face serious consequences.
“The legal penalties for a situation described by Acho could range from civil penalties launched by the victim all the way to RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968) concerns if it’s considered a pattern of racketeering,” 49ers Talk’s Tony Farmer sketched out the possibilities.”
Nine-year NFL star Marcellus Wiley said on his podcast earlier this week:
“In the NFL, a lot of former police officers are employed. FBI. Former FBI are employed,” Wiley said. “…We also have a security director. Let me just call him like he is. He’s a fixer. If he can fix it, he will fix it. If he can’t it, if it’s out of his hands, it’s too big a story or it got out of his jurisdiction, he can’t fix it…. Every team has one.”
Nevertheless, everything blew up after Acho’s comment, putting him on the hot seat. Time to see how the NFL deals with DiSandro, one of the backbones of the Eagles’ security.