Former New York Giants linebacker Michael Boley was "secretly" arrested back in February for a 2011 investigation into accusations that he had abused his child.

The investigation was spurred by claims from the five-year-old child's mother that Boley had physically abused their son. The abuse is not believe to be of a sexual nature.

The arrest of Boley came a mere three days after he was released by the New York Giants. The giants organization denies any knowledge of Boley's legal troubles and maintains that the reason he was cut was due to a standard "football decision."

"Michael Boley was brought here as a fast, athletic, versatile linebacker," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said at the time of Boley's release. "We recognized his special skills were in coverage. He's a smart player who made some big plays for us. He was an integral part of our Super Bowl XLVI championship team. Michael played outstanding football down the stretch for us that season."

As part of a plea agreement, Boley turned himself into authorities in exchange for a guilty verdict and would therefore be able to participate in a pretrial diversion program. Once he completed the program, the charges against the linebacker would be dropped.

The fact that Boley was cut three days before he turned himself in is a likely indicator that the Giants knew about his situation. Furthermore, he had a fairly productive season last year, coming in third on the team with 84 tackles and tallying an additional 3 interceptions.

Public reaction to the Boley arrest has ranged from nasty criticism of the player to accusations that the mother was exaggerating what really happened. One user's comment on the CBS Sports blog took the distinction of abuse and discipline into account:

"I'm not saying I wanna pry, but is he 'beating them' or disciplining them, these day and age kids can't even be 'yelled' out by their parents without someone threatening to call social services."