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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014 On Wednesday, the Broncos did nothing at all extraordinary. They held their first day of organized team activities. Peyton Manning threw a football. He handed it off some, too. Von Miller caught a pick.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Defensive end Antonio Smith was not present.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Smith, 33, is a veteran who was cut by Oakland in March and signed by Denver on April 2. He played on Gary Kubiak\u2019s Texans from 2009-13. And since November he\u2019s been under investigation in Fort Bend County, Texas, for child abuse that police described as \u201Csexual in nature.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;TMZ broke the news of the investigation last week, and Wednesday\u2019s team activities were the Broncos\u2019 first, apart from a golf outing, since the revelation. Since that day, Broncos brass and new head coach&amp;nbsp;Kubiak have been engaged in conversation with the defensive end, a conversation that culminated over the holiday weekend in a mutual decision that Smith would stay home and focus on his legal troubles.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200BFor now, all that is known about Smith\u2019s situation is this: An accusation was levied, the Fort Bend Sheriff\u2019s department investigated and it deemed the issue serious enough to pass on to the district attorney. No charges have been filed, and Kubiak stressed that the team\u2019s decision on Smith shouldn\u2019t be viewed as a punishment or judgment, and he very much shied away from the idea that the Broncos had in any way ordered Smith not to participate.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even so, in the hours since the news of Smith\u2019s absence broke, fans and sports writers alike have taken to the Internet to praise John Elway and company. &lt;em &gt;They took the moral high ground. They went above and beyond. &lt;/em&gt;No. They did none of that, nothing even close to extraordinary. They did what they were supposed to do, the right thing, no more, no less.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just weeks ago, though, the Broncos may have relied too much on familiarity. Kubiak and Smith had worked well together in the past in Houston. Sure, the child abuse investigation might not have popped up on a cursory background check. But in today\u2019s NFL, aren\u2019t teams obligated, and better served, to do more? Yes, it\u2019s impossible to know what level of investigation would have turned up these allegations, but in the post-Ray Rice world, teams have to do their research or risk falling victim to sanctions imposed by the league\u2019s new personal conduct policy. If the Broncos did do their best to look into Smith and still didn't turn up the investigation, that doesn't make them bad people; it could, however, hurt their product on the field\u200B. Accusations, allegations, crimes\u2014none can be swept under the rug any longer, but teams still fall short of doing their due diligence on many incoming players.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;\u200B&lt;strong&gt;FARRAR: Wilson's contract talks looming over Seahawks&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just look at the draft. This year\u2019s top pick, Jameis Winston, has a record that includes an accusation of rape, yet his new team, the Buccaneers, never spoke to the woman who levied that accusation. They did, however, talk to 75 other references about the quarterback, and not long after coach Lovie Smith told the media that his team needed to be able to \u201Clook a guy in the eye and feel comfortable with the answers that you're getting,\u201D Tampa general manager Jason Licht said these two sentences to the MMQB\u2019s Peter King: \u201CWe read the depositions. We knew what she was going to say.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\u200BThen why not unturn the stone, let her say what they already \u201Cknew\u201D she\u2019d say? Why didn\u2019t the Seahawks interview the woman their second-round pick, Frank Clark, allegedly assaulted? Why didn\u2019t the Bears speak to any of Ray McDonald\u2019s accusers before they inked him to a deal? He\u2019d already been cut in 2014 by the 49ers after being arrested twice on domestic violence charges, after all. Chicago released him on Monday, barely two months after signing him, when he was yet again arrested\u2014and on Wednesday, the team\u2019s chairman still shied away from saying he wishes he\u2019d spoken to McDonald\u2019s accusers before signing him.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Winston, Clark and McDonald all had known raps when their teams were interviewing and scouting them. Smith didn\u2019t. But that doesn\u2019t absolve any team from going further in its background checks than it would have a year ago. It doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll catch everything or prevent anything. Nothing is perfect, but teams can be better.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;BEDARD: Kelly's bold rebuild fits mold of coaching greats&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today\u2019s NFL is a different\u2014and I hope better\u2014league than it was a year ago, with a far more stringent personal conduct policy, and even if charges aren\u2019t brought in the investigation into Smith, the NFL will conduct its own investigation. That means the defensive end could miss time regardless, and Denver could be out a player.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI would love to have had all the information, yes, at some point,'' Kubiak said Wednesday of the Broncos\u2019 ignorance of the investigation. \u201CBut you know what, that's come and gone. So it's time right now to do the right thing and to go about it each day the right way.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The right thing: It\u2019s to cut Smith if charges are filed, to bring him back if they aren\u2019t, to hold judgment until then. The Broncos hope to have more information on the investigation in \u201Ca week or two,\u201D Kubiak said; until then, we wait and Smith sits.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/05/27/antonio-smith-broncos-investigation-child-abuse-nfl-conduct-policy>