Arizona Cardinals assistant arrested for soliciting prostitute
Cardinals wide receivers coach Richie Anderson, hired in January as part of new head coach Ken Whisenhunt’s staff, was arrested Thursday night for soliciting a prostitute.
Anderson is accused of propositioning a female officer posing as a prostitute at Pointe South Mountain resort, 7777 S. Pointe Parkway in Phoenix, during an undercover sting operation by Phoenix police.
The Cardinals weren’t commenting much on the situation, including what effect it may have on Anderson’s job status.
“The team has been made aware of the situation regarding Richie Anderson,” the Cardinals said in a statement. “We are in the process of gathering additional information and will comment further when we have done that.”
Whisenhunt is out of town, having left Thursday afternoon for Pittsburgh to attend his daughter’s birthday party.
Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said Richard Darnell Anderson, 35, was booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute.
The police department’s Vice Unit arrested five men at the resort as part of their undercover operation to arrest customers trying to pick up prostitutes.
Anderson was taken into custody at 9:30 p.m. without incident, Hill said.
Hill said an arrest usually comes after a person discusses a sex act and the cost of obtaining it, although Hill said he couldn’t reveal the details that led to Anderson’s arrest.
Hill also said he couldn’t say where at the resort the arrest took place.
The police report wasn’t immediately available.
Anderson is no longer at the Fourth Avenue Jail, according to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Paul Chagolla.
Anderson is part of what is considered one the Cards’ best coaching staffs since the team moved to Arizona in 1988.
Anderson spent 13 seasons in the NFL playing for the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys. He retired after the 2005 season and spent 2006 as an assistant on the Jets coaching staff helping with both receivers and tight ends.
Whisenhunt, who was a coach on the Jets staff when Anderson played in New York, hired Anderson originally to be the Cardinals’ tight ends coach. When Freddie Kitchens was later added to the Cards’ staff to coach tight ends, Anderson was switched to receivers coach.
His biographies in the 2006 Jets media guide and on the Cardinals’ Web site do not list any family.