Panthers interim general manager Marty Hurney will meet with an NFL investigator Friday to answer his ex-wife’s claims of harassment.
Hurney’s attorney Kathleen Lucchesi said Hurney will meet with Lisa Friel, the NFL’s special counsel for investigations, in Charlotte. Hurney was placed on a paid administrative leave Wednesday by Carolina while the NFL investigates the matter, even though his ex-wife Jeannie Hurney has withdrawn her complaint.
Hurney is one of four men who have interviewed for the team’s full-time general manager position.
His current contract expires June 30.
Lucchesi told The Associated Press in an email that Hurney is “very upset” by the allegations “first, because they are not true, and second, because she made them at a time she and the rest of Charlotte knew Marty was interviewing for the GM job with the Panthers.”
Houston’s Jimmy Raye III, Buffalo’s Lake Dawson and San Francisco’s Martin Mayhew have also interviewed for the full-time GM position.
“He is hopeful that it won’t affect his consideration for the Panthers GM position,” Lucchesi said of Hurney.
Marty and Jeannie Hurney divorced in 2013.
Hurney remarried in 2016 and has a 14-month old child at home.
“Ms. Hurney has a history of making fictitious claims against Marty since they divorced,” Lucchesi said. “Even though Marty has remarried, Ms. Hurney has continued her baseless and malicious assault on Marty’s character. It’s unfortunate that Marty now has to deal with the fallout of Ms. Hurney’s vindictive conduct.”
Hurney remains in limbo while awaiting the outcome of the NFL investigation while the Panthers approach a busy offseason with free agency and the NFL draft looming.
The Panthers brought back Hurney to be their interim general manager in July after owner Jerry Richardson fired Dave Gettleman days before the start of training camp. Hurney was the Panthers GM from 1998 through 2012.
Hurney is credited for building the core of a team that reached the Super Bowl two years ago.
Even though the complaint has been withdrawn, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the league would continue to review the case under the league’s personal conduct policy.
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