BREAKING NEWS: Sippio Arrested for Attempted Murder
Adam Markowitz
Friday May 25, 2012
ORLANDO -- The season for the 2012 Orlando Predators took a turn for the worse on Friday night when WR Bobby Sippio was released. The team announced the news late on Friday night following the team's 55-37 loss to the Jacksonville Sharks. It was the second straight game that Sippio was inactive.
Sippio was arrested on Friday morning in Kissimmee and taken to the Osceola County jail. He and Santana Omar Coats were booked into the Osceola County jail on charges of attempted murder, armed robbery with a firearm, aggravated battery, and kidnapping.
Deputies report that Sippio and Coats, who are roommates, threatened to kill Sergio Moore late on Thursday night in Kissimmee, where Sippio played high school football. The two were brought in for questioning, but arrest reports show that neither Sippio nor Coats cooperated with investigators.
Moore reported that Sippio and Coats attacked him after the pair agreed to help him move furniture. The victim was in the car with Sippio and Coats, and was driven to a different area than agreed, a shadier, more rural part of Kissimmee. The two reportedly forced the victim out of the car and beat him. Later on, the victim claims that he was driven back to his house, where he was threatened to be murdered at gunpoint by Sippio. The victim was treated at Orlando Regional Medical Center in the early hours on Friday morning.
Orlando Predators managing partner Brett Bouchy told Bright House Sports Network's David Baumann that Sippio had been released. The team later released the following statement…
"We strive to find players who exhibit not only exceptional talent, but high moral character. Sippio was not fulfilling that obligation and was inactive three weeks ago and has not been with the team since." –Brett Bouchy
This is not the first time that the Sippio family has had a run-in with a member of the Coats family. Robert Sippio Sr., Bobby's father, was fired by the City of St. Cloud in 1998 for falsifying time sheets at the Chambers Park Neighborhood Center. The elder Sippio worked with Lance Coats, the father of the man that was arrested on Friday morning.
This is also not the first time that Sippio has gotten himself into trouble. Once known as the "T.O. of the Arena Football League," Sippio was shot in 2004. He was also suspended before by his alma mater, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers for conduct detrimental to the team.
Coats has had his share of run-ins with the law in recent years as well. In November of 2011, he has booked for resisting arrest and not adhering to probation. He also has been arrested for providing false identification, possessing hallucinogens, and contempt of court.
This very well could be the end of the career of Sippio in the Arena Football League, and it comes on the eve of when he will likely be included on the list of the Top 25 Wide Receivers in league history. Sippio has 199 TD receptions for his career, and he is just one shy of becoming the tenth player in AFL history to get to 200 receiving touchdowns.
For the 2012 season, Sippio has 27 receptions for 334 yards and nine TDs, and he only played in four games for the team. In his career, Sippio has played for the Dallas Desperados, Chicago Rush, and Tampa Bay Storm, to go with his three seasons in Orlando. He ranks No. 27 in career receptions with 539, No. 25 in career receiving yards with 7,557, and No. 10 in TDs with 199.
Just four weeks ago, Sippio had been named the Offensive Player of the Week in Week 8 in the AFL.