Former NFL player Joe Staysniak charged for allegedly hitting son and strangling son’s boyfriend

Former NFL player Joe Staysniak was arrested at his Indiana home after allegedly assaulting his son and his son’s boyfriend, according to a probable cause affidavit from a responding Hendricks County Sheriff’s deputy.

The 56-year-old Staysniak, who played for the Indianapolis Colts from 1992 to 1995 and on several other NFL teams, has been charged with one count of strangulation and two counts of battery resulting in bodily injury, according to court records.  

A man told police he had been sitting in a car with Staysniak’s son, his boyfriend, near Staysniak’s home. He said Joe Staysniak had come up to the car, pulled him and his son out of it, and hit each of them, according to the affidavit, and said Staysniak flashed a gun, which he felt against his face during the incident. He also said Staysniak grabbed him by the hood of his jacket, strangling him. 

The son also told deputies his father hit him, making his lip bleed, and struck his boyfriend.

Joe Staysniak, who told deputies he did have a gun and grabbed the boyfriend’s hood, said he saw his son in his underwear with his boyfriend, whom he told never to return to his property. He denied hitting the boyfriend.

In a news release posted on Facebook, Staysniak’s lawyer, Guy A. Relford, said the situation unfolded when a neighbor contacted Staysniak about two “suspicious vehicles” parked in the woods near Staysniak’s home.

The lawyer said his client went to investigate and found his adult son and a friend in the car. “The details of what transpired will come out in the courtroom, but we are completely confident Joe’s actions will be convulsively determined to be legal and justified under the circumstances,” Relford said in the release. 

Relford had no further comment.

Staysniak also worked at local radio stations WIBC and WFNI until August 2021, according to WIBC, which reported on the case. CBS News has reached out to Staysniak’s former employer for further comment and is awaiting a response.