Moore: What do Seahawks fans make of the Quinton Dunbar situation?

I ran a poll on Twitter this week and I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised with the results. I asked which side of the story you believed, the statements that victims made to police saying Seahawks cornerback Quinton Dunbar was involved in an armed robbery last week or the signed affidavits from the same victims that said he wasn’t.

Related: Attorney explains Quinton Dunbar’s legal case

Sixty-four percent of the nearly 1,000 voters answered “signed affidavits” while 36 percent went with police statements. I thought the poll would either be 50-50 or lean toward statements to police since it seemed curious to me that their story could have changed that drastically from one day to the next.

Which side of the Quinton Dunbar incident do you believe, testimony to police or what victims said in affidavits?

— Jim Moore (@cougsgo) May 18, 2020

But as with any poll, you have to consider who the voters are, and in this case, I’m guessing a majority were Seahawks’ fans. And if you’re a Seahawks fan, I get it, you hope Dunbar will be able to play for your favorite team because he’s supposed to upgrade what was a below-average defense last year. And he can’t help your defense if he’s in jail.

As evidence of that, a fan who responded to the Twitter poll said: “Which (answer) is the one where he gets to play this year? That will be my choice.”

But how would you feel about the Dunbar incident if he were a member of the 49ers or the Rams? Would that have changed your vote? Would you have joked about an NFC West rival having a player who allegedly was an accomplice in a theft that netted $70,000 in cash and valuables while making his getaway in a luxury car? Would you have been more skeptical about the victims changing their story?

Or what if Quinton Dunbar was Joe Blow? Not an NFL player, just an average citizen. What if you looked at all of the details you’ve heard in an objective way? How would you have voted then? Maybe neither way if you’re looking at it objectively, saying he’s innocent ‘til proven guilty.

I listened to John Clayton’s interview with Michael Grieco, Dunbar’s attorney, earlier this week. He pretty much refuted everything from the initial story that led police to issue a warrant for his client’s arrest: Dunbar did not participate in the robbery, did not have gambling debts that might have been a motive for the robbery and did not have a close relationship with the other NFL player, Giants cornerback Deandre Baker, who was also charged.

Baker’s attorney maintains his client’s innocence, telling the New York Post that Baker was playing a Madden video game in another room when the robbery took place at a home in Miramar, Fla.

As for Dunbar, Grieco said: “It’s very important to make sure people know he’s innocent. He’s going to walk away from this exonerated.”

If he’s right, great. But don’t you think it’s strange that the victims changed their stories? Don’t you wonder why? Were they bribed? Did they make up a story for some reason to get the players in trouble? For what reason? Or were they confused when they told police what happened only to get a better handle on things the next day? One way or another they lied to the police or lied on the affidavits.

Here’s something else that was interesting: In the Clayton interview, John asked Grieco if he knew what type of people the victims were. Grieco replied: “I get the impression these guys are scam artists.”

So does that help or hurt his case? Hey, if they’re scam artists, you can’t believe anything they say, can you?

If I had to guess, Greico’s right and Dunbar will be exonerated because the prosecuting attorney won’t be able to build a case if there was even one to build in the first place. Based on the victims’ initial statements, there was. But not so much anymore. The whole thing comes across as fishy, as in Fishy with a capital F.

Someone asked me how I’d feel if Gardner Minshew traded places with Dunbar and was the target of an investigation. Since I’m a big Minshew fan, would I support him no matter what? I like to think that I wouldn’t. If he committed a crime, he should be punished like anyone else. The whole Coug thing has limits.

It’s reached the point of being amusing to me that former Seahawks linebacker Mychal Kendricks has had his sentencing date for insider trading delayed five or six times now. I’ve honestly lost track, but the last I heard, it’s been delayed until October.

From what I’ve read about similar cases, Kendricks should receive some amount of jail time, yet he played for the Seahawks last year as a convicted felon. Kendricks supporters contend that he committed a victimless crime, and I always counter with: “If it’s such a minor deal, why is it considered a felony?” We’ll have to agree to disagree on that.

There’s always a sliding scale with how much an NFL team will tolerate with criminal involvement or shady pasts. If you’re a really good player, you get more slack than a special-teams player. I know that, you know that, but it’s a way of the world I’ve never liked much. The standards should be the same for the top player and the bottom player in your organization.

I forget that being an avid fan can cloud your thinking or at least steer it in a different direction. I got another reminder of that on Twitter last week after I wrote a 710Sports.com story looking at possible free-agent replacements for Dunbar if legal issues prevent him from playing for the Seahawks.

“The brilliant Jim Moore,” a guy named Jack wrote, sarcastically. “Time to retire, bozo.”

I wrote back and said: “I’m getting there, Jack. How are you doing today?”

Jack replied: “Better after hearing Quinton’s lawyer say five witnesses exonerate him from the charges.”

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