Ex-Colts Player Accused of Attacking Son, Son's Boyfriend

An ex-Indianapolis Colts player has been arrested after a domestic incident involving his son. Per FOX59, 56-year-old Joe "Big Joe" Staysniak, who retired from the NFL in 1996 after a final season with the Arizona Cardinals, was taken into custody just before 2am on Tuesday by Hendricks County Sheriff's Office deputies, with initial charges of intimidation, pointing a firearm, strangulation, and domestic battery. The news outlet reports that, according to the sheriff's office, deputies responded to a call shortly before midnight for a "delayed disturbance" at an Indianapolis home, where they found Staysniak and two other men.

Deputies say those men were Staysniak's son and his son's boyfriend, with the boyfriend alleging that Staysniak dragged them both out of the car they were sitting in near Staysniak's home and hit them, per a probable cause affidavit cited by CBS News. The boyfriend says Staysniak also pulled him by his hoodie and pressed a gun against the side of his face, while Staysniak's son, identified by the New York Post as Lucas Staysniak, says his father hit both his boyfriend and himself, busting his lip, according to the affidavit. The older Staysniak denied hitting his son's boyfriend, but he conceded to deputies that after he saw his son in his underwear with the boyfriend, he grabbed the boyfriend by the hood and told him never to come to his home again.

In a statement, Staysniak attorney Guy Relford says the incident began when a neighbor reported to Staysniak that he'd spotted two suspicious vehicles "at a late hour" in the woods near Staysniak's home, and that Staysniak had found "his adult son and a friend" in one of the cars when he'd gone to check what was going on. Relford calls his client a "long-standing pillar" of the community and adds that "we are completely confident Joe's actions will be convulsively determined to be legal and justified under the circumstances." The original charges against Staysniak, who after his football career worked as a host for local radio stations, have since been amended to just include strangulation and two counts of battery resulting in bodily injury. (More Indianapolis Colts stories.)