Trouble has a peculiar way of following this guy around. The latest revelations came on Saturday, in a front-page Buffalo News story in which a Buffalo detective sergeant claimed that Lynch had stolen $20 from his wife last month at a TGI Friday's in Hamburg.
It's unclear exactly what happened that day. Hamburg police are now saying the news account wasn't consistent with their information. We might never find out if Lynch actually threatened the woman or uttered the now-infamous words, "Do you know who I am?"
Lynch might be guilty of nothing worse than being a jerk and adding another chapter to his legend of boorish behavior at Western New York bars. But I know this: It's always something with Lynch. This isn't about $20. It's about an athlete whose behavior has gone over the line time and again.
I stopped giving Lynch the benefit of the doubt last summer, after he pleaded guilty to gun possession in L.A. That was nine months after the hit-and-run in downtown Buffalo. On the day Lynch was playing with the toy car, the news broke that the Ontario woman who was struck in that 2008 accident was suing.
Yes, it's a long list of indiscretions, including Lynch's charming custom of bringing his own alcohol into bars. For every incident that became public, there's another that never saw the light of day. As Hamburg police said after the hit-and-run on Chippewa, it was consistent with a pattern of behavior since Lynch arrived in town in 2007.
Lynch has complained of being harassed by the cops. Apologists make him out to be a victim. People are questioning the motives of the detective who filed the complaint. There's always someone willing to defend Lynch because he came from a brutal section of Oakland.
That's an insult to every person who rose from difficult circumstances to became a decent, law-abiding citizen. Pro sports are full of such men. It's too bad the goof-ups get most of the attention.