Steve Wilks: Cardinals Exec Gave Me Burner Phone to Communicate with Suspended GM

Former Arizona Cardinals head coach and current San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks reportedly testified that a number of team executives, including himself, were given burner phones in Arizona to communicate with Steve Keim when the former general manager was suspended during the 2018 season.

Tisha Thompson of ESPN cited a deposition transcript that was part of the ongoing arbitration complaint filed by former Cardinals vice president of personnel Terry McDonough against the team and owner Michael Bidwill.

McDonough alleged racist and discriminatory treatment of employees and the use of burner phones. Thompson noted Bidwill and the Cardinals previously called the allegations "outlandish."

Wilks testified that former Cardinals vice president of football administration Mike Disner provided him with the burner phone and said that Disner told him Keim, McDonough and vice president of football operations and facilities Matt Caracciolo also received such phones.

"With me being a first-year head coach, I felt uncomfortable from the beginning that I worked this hard to get to this plateau and this opportunity, and then I was presented with this situation with being unethical," Wilks testified.

Wilks led the Cardinals to a 3-13 record in 2018 and was fired after his only campaign as the head coach.

Arizona suspended Keim for five weeks and fined him $200,000 after he pleaded guilty to extreme DUI during the summer of 2018. The NFL elected not to impose further punishments after the Cardinals said Keim would have no contact with the team and not be present in the facilities.

While Thompson noted that Wilks said he only communicated with Keim one time via the burner phone when the general manager reached out to ask him about a practice, he also testified that Disner communicated with Keim in such a manner as the team negotiated a three-year, $39 million contract extension with running back David Johnson.

The former head coach also contradicted an April statement from the Cardinals saying "Mr. Bidwill took swift action" when he found out about the burner phones and "directed the phones be retrieved and communications stopped."

Wilks said, "No one retrieved the burner phones until Keim came back [from his suspension], so it wasn't swift."

After his time with the Cardinals, Wilks was the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns and the interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers for 12 games in 2022.

San Francisco hired him this offseason to replace former defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, who is now the head coach of the Houston Texans.