| Berry's arrest is the sixth this offseason for Detroit. (US Presswire) |
You might recall that the Lions have gotten into quite a bit of trouble this offseason (what a bunch of jerks, am I right?). Despite some tough talk from the players and coaches who haven’t been arrested, the police blotter keeps rolling right on through Detroit’s locker room.
The latest, from Lions.com writer Tim Twentyman.
Unbelievable. Lions CB Aaron Berry reportedly arrested for DUI this weekend.
— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) June 26, 2012
That report comes from WXYZ.com, which writes that Berry was arrested on suspicion of DUI early Saturday morning in Harrisburg, Pa., and charged with two counts of accidental damage to an unattended vehicle property and two counts of failure to stop and give information to law enforcement.
According to the TV station’s sources, Berry allegedly hit the cars with his vehicle and then walked away from the accident. But a witness followed him and called the police. He was arrested at 4:45 a.m., but apparently was not cooperative and refused a breathalyzer test.
“We are extremely disappointed in the reports involving Aaron Berry and the incident in Pennsylvania this past weekend,” the Lions have said in a statement. “This is not the standard of behavior we expect from any member of our organization. We have strongly and repeatedly emphasized the need to be accountable on and off the field, which makes this incident with Aaron all the more disappointing. We will have further comments regarding this situation when appropriate.”
Said Berry in a statement (via Twentyman): “I want to offer a sincere apology to the Lions organization, Lions fans, the coaches and all my teammates for my actions this past weekend. This is not the example I want to set for young people and it’s certainly not what my team and coaches expect from me. I promise to do everything in my power to make sure this never happens again. I understand these are just words and it will be my future actions that ultimately will speak for me."
Running back Mikel Leshoure already has been suspended for the first two games of the season and fined another two game checks after he was arrested twice on drug charges. Nick Fairley has been arrested twice in an 11-month span, and Johnny Culbreath was arrested on a marijuana charge in January.
And even though there were no arrests made, you might recall the minor tiff between safety Louis Delmas and receiver Titus Young.
All of it caused team vice-chairman Bill Ford Jr., to put together a strong statement.
“Unfortunately it's just a couple guys who are just tainting our whole image,” he said less than a month ago. “There's no question, some of our young guys better get their act together because that's not the way you become a professional. The good news is we've got some great veteran leadership on our team that are great guys and can set the tone and I suspect it's going to be those veterans who are really going to get these guys back in line ..."
As CBSSports.com’s Mike Freeman wrote last month, the Lions could be a stalwart squad if they ever stayed out of trouble. As of last weekend, that apparently hasn’t happened yet.
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