The feud between two former Philadelphia Eagles players has heated to the boiling point as an arrest warrant was issued in Florida for Jabar Gaffney, over the alleged vandalism of fellow player Lito Sheppard’s car.
It appears that Sheppard had been accused of having an affair with Gaffney’s wife and the resulting feud between the two former NFL players led to an incident in June whereupon police issued a warrant to arrest Gaffney for the vandalism, NBC Sports reported.
Sheppard reportedly supplied police in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, with a video that officials felt was suspicious enough to arrest Gaffney for possibly messing around with his former team mate’s car. The video also showed a white woman bending down by all four of Sheppard’s tires. Sheppard found all four tires slashed that day and later his engine was ruined by something that had been poured into the gas tank.
Sheppard already filed for an order of protection against Gaffney insisting in the paperwork that Gaffney “has publicly defamed my character and continues to disrupt my family life as well as damages to my personal property.”
Sheppard also denied that he ever had an affair with Gaffney’s wife.
Gaffney’s attorney, Seth Schwartz, previously said that the video was “absolutely not” his client:
“Jabar Gaffney is absolutely maintaining it’s not him. I don’t think it looks like him; other people that have seen him don’t think it looks like him. The whole thing is ridiculous. We will take a look at the injunction and defend it. Jabar Gaffney has no clue why this is happening because he hasn’t seen Lito Sheppard in three years. He (Gaffney) is getting aggravated because his name is being drug through the mud nationally and he is innocent.”
Schwartz has not commented on the arrest warrant.
Lito Sheppard attended high school at same Jacksonville school as Jabar Gaffney, and both went on to play for the University of Florida at the same time. They were also both drafted into the NFL in 2002, Sheppard the First Round 26th pick and Gaffney the 33rd pick in the second round.
However, the similarities end there. Sheppard played for the Eagles for six seasons while Gaffney was only in Philly for one season during which time he never played a regular season game. And while Gaffney jumped from team to team, often as a practice squad member and rarely staying for a season or two, Sheppard was a two-time Pro Bowl player who spent the majority of his career in Philadelphia.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.