It was a chilly night just before Christmas last year when my good girlfriend and I decided to have dinner at Strip Restaurant inside Atlantic Station.
As we checked out the wares of the few vendors willing to brave the cold on a side street, I spotted a couple walking arm in arm past us. I noticed them only because the man looked familiar.
Once inside Strip, we were told we had a long wait for a table. So we went upstairs to wait at the bar area. There, we spotted the same couple lounging at the bar with a group of women. One of the women, Leilani, was a longtime industry associate of mine. So I called her over.
After a brief conversation, she asked me if I knew former NFL player Warren Sapp. I told her I saw him outside and I thought he looked familiar. I asked her if the woman with Sapp was his wife, and she laughed and said no. She told me she hooked Sapp up with a girlfriend of hers while he was in town on business.
She went on to say that Sapp lived on the west coast — and, no, she didn’t think he had a wife waiting for him at home while he galavanted around the A with other women. I jokingly asked Leilani — who sells real estate for a living — if setting up ballers with her girlfriends was a side hustle. But I don’t recall if she answered the question or not.
Now fast forward about 8 weeks.
According to TMZ.com, Sapp was arrested and jailed yesterday in Miami Beach on domestic battery charges for putting his foot on the neck of a woman who claimed to be his girlfriend of two years.
According to the arrest report, the woman claims Sapp allowed her to sleep in his room on Friday night. She said she was rudely awakened around 5 a.m. Saturday morning by Sapp who ordered her to leave. The woman said Sapp snatched her out of the bed and threw her bodily into the hall after accusing her of being with men the night before.
But Sapp had a different story: he told police he allowed the woman to stay in his room — but later on decided he wanted her to leave because “he was expecting company.” He said he was trying to help her and she fell. The woman sustained injuries to her knee and the back of her neck.
So the question is: was this the same “girlfriend” who I saw with Sapp in Atlanta at Strip Restaurant back in December? I wonder only because Atlanta and Miami are so geographically close. And because the strip clubs in the A have been literally emptied out by ballers, rappers and NFL players who flew their favorite dancers to Miami this weekend to entertain them and their boys in their hotels.
Sapp is in Miami doing color commentary for The NFL Network and Showtime’s “Inside the NFL.”
The NFL Network released a statement saying they were aware of the incident and that Sapp will not appear on the NFL Network until they review the matter further. We’re happy to see that The NFL Network takes domestic battery charges so seriously.
