A top priority for the Buffalo Bills heading into the NFL Draft existed in the secondary, where they hoped to land a starting-caliber corner. They addressed that need from the jump, drafting Maxwell Hairston at pick No. 30 overall.
But the move was - and is now - not without controversy.
Hairston entered the NFL amid an allegation of sexual assault stemming from an incident back in 2021.
And on Tuesday, the alleged victim has filed a civil suit, as Hairston has been named in a suit filed by Bryant Law Center and Meyers & Flowers, per a report.
The lawsuit asserts that Hairston engaged in non-consensual sexual contact with the woman in her on-campus dorm University of Kentucky room back in 2021.
The Bills and the NFL were aware of this charge before the draft.
Teams did do some additional examination into his background. Brandon Beane, the general manager of the team that finally chose him, stood firm then in proclaiming Hairston's innocence.
“Yeah, he’s an impeccable kid and we’ve done a lot of research,'' Beane said. "Just like anything in this world, you can’t just take someone’s account and think that’s the truth, but yes, we fully investigated that.
"I would say this is a heck of a young man, every person you ask. That’s unfortunate when things like that are attached to someone’s name and in this case, it doesn’t seem to be anything there.”
Hairston was never criminally charged and no details of the case were made public. ... but that latter issue, it seems, is about to change.