That’s ESPN investigative reporter extraordinaire John Barr going even a step further than what I’ve been saying (that McCoy charges likely aren’t coming until at least Monday). Why the delay? A PERSON CONNECTED TO THE INVESTIGATION* told me that the DA’s office is “no longer [seeking] probable cause to arrest… they want beyond reasonable doubt,” which is the standard typically reserved for guilty judgements in court, not for the arrest, which has a much lower threshold.

Again, why? Just my opinion here: This is going to be an extremely difficult case to prosecute. Early on, it was shaping up to be an open and shut case against McCoy and friends. But it has seemingly become difficult to tell who did what. We know there was a bar fight, we know it started over a bottle of champagne, we know McCoy and his friends and off-duty police officers were involved, we know the cops lost. But we also know that a report wasn’t filed at the scene and that the injured off-duty cops drove themselves to the hospital. We know that there is no smoking gun against McCoy– the TMZ video shows that he was certainly involved and threw at least one punch (hard to tell what it even hit), but good luck prosecuting an NFL star with high-priced lawyers based on one punch into a pile. It certainly feels like there’s a lack of hard evidence. The accounts given by club workers match those give by the officers – that McCoy and his crew were the aggressors – but there is no surveillance video, no crystal clear cell phone video, and, as of yesterday, investigators were still eager to find witnesses. The one who provided us a video, which we gave to investigators upon their request, declined to have his information turned over to police, and we’re hearing TMZ didn’t give up the source of their video either. Further, we’re hearing that Curtis Brinkley’s attorney may be saying his client wasn’t present. And, should charges be filed, defense attorneys will do everything in their power to paint the off-duty officers as the reckless aggressors, which the city will want no parts of.

That takes us back to the beginning: Why the delay? Why the higher standard before making an arrest? The DA’s office will want to be absolutely positive it has a case, more than usual, before arresting an NFL star for what we know so far to be only his mere involvement in a fracas that badly injured two off-duty police officers. Otherwise, McCoy’s high-priced lawyers will find the holes in the case and poke right through them. Hence the delay.

I was on 97.5 with Matt Lombardo talking about this last night. Listen here– 27:00 mark.

*I am enjoying using these proper terms since we’re all over breaking shit this week.