Add Another Name to the NFL Offseason Arrest List: Seattle’s Lofa Tatupu Nabbed for DUI
NFL May 14th. 2008, 2:15pm
Why is it that we keep hearing about how the NBA needs to rehabilitate its image, when the largest problems – by far – are happening in the NFL? Remember two years ago when USA Today plastered headshots of all the NFL players who had been arrested? (The Washington Post posted a lengthy list, too.) In the wake of the latest player malefeasance – Seattle All-Pro Lofa Tatupu getting hit with a DUI over the weekend when he blew twice the league legal limit – one has to wonder if another cover story is in the works.
Let’s see … Marvin Harrison … Cedric Benson … Ahmad Brooks … Kenny Wright … Chris Henry … Kenton Keith … these are just a few we could remember off the top of our head. And as far as athletes go, we’ll never understand how they’re getting DUIs. Tatupu just signed a $42 million deal in March. He’s got three friends in the car. Did he lose his cell phone? Why else would he not call a cab to cart him and his buddies around? He’s risking forty-two million bucks by getting behind the wheel intoxicated. Jeez.
Seahawks’ Tatupu apologizes after arrest (Seattle Times)
NFL Star popped for DUI at McDonald’s (TMZ)
55 Responses to “Add Another Name to the NFL Offseason Arrest List: Seattle’s Lofa Tatupu Nabbed for DUI”
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May 14th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Don’t forget that steroid abuse in the NFL makes MLB look like a high school team experimenting with raw eggs.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
i read he got pulled over driving a Hyundai Elantra.
97′ Mazada >>> Hyundui Elantra
May 14th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
And the NFL is the least consumer friendly sports league (DirectTV monolopy, NFL Network, regional blackouts, etc.)
May 14th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
i wonder if he got pulled over in the drive thru of McDonalds? He must love the dollar menu
May 14th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Went to high school with Ahmad Brooks. Was a good basketball player too, had an affinity for the reefer.
Where is Roger Goodell to hand out suspensions for all these guys? He came out guns blazing and now he is doing nothing.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
The NFL’s steroid testing is a joke. Baseball’s testing policy isn’t the greatest by any stretch of the imagine, but it is sure as hell better than the NFL’s.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Goodell only disciplines when the media implores him to (see Pacman Jones and Patriots, New England). As long as there’s not outrage, as TBL points out, he’s going to remain quiet.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Is the league limit different than the legal limit?
I bet the Seattle fans are bitching about the ways DUI penalties are called as well.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
@cbh- its probably in his best interest to let the legal process go forward before he hands out any supsensions
May 14th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Never heard of him. Seriously, who is this guy?
/joke works both ways.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
I can’t wrap my head around these guys not getting cabs or hiring a driver, are they dumb or just stubborn?
May 14th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Irish, he didn’t do that with Pacman Jones.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Back in the day a guy on Arkansas’s football team got “pulled over” for passing out in the T Bell parking lot and I thought that was bad. An NFL player at Mc D’s? Seriously?
May 14th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I bet the Seattle fans are bitching about the ways DUI penalties are called as well.
+1 Roeth
May 14th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
really? when was the last time an all pro player was cut for getting a dui
May 14th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
ego/entitlement thing, i guess
May 14th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
“I bet the Seattle fans are bitching about the ways DUI penalties are called as well.”
best comment of 2008. by far. kudos.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Moleman, I think TBL means he is risking it because when you drive drunk you are possibly going to kill someone or yourself
May 14th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
@cbh- i understand your point completely. this is from the Seattle Times article up there
“Tatupu could face discipline from the NFL under its substance-abuse policy. But if he’s a first-time offender the general protocol does not call for a suspension.”
with pacman, it was multiple issues
May 14th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Um, Pacman.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I don’t really think he should be suspended, I just think Goodell set himself up for double standards with how hard he came down on guys at first.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
there are just a ton of people who drive drunk all the time, athletes are no different. for every 1 athletes are 100 regular idiots getting caught
/doesnt make it right
May 14th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I think Roger Goodell does a great job with the suspensions
/Jared Allen
May 14th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
with pacman, it was multiple issues
1 DUI is a bad mistake. Pacman is a fucking cavalcade of travashamockeries.
/puts down thesaurus
May 14th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
mmonast, someone brought that up a month ago, and the messege board went berzerk. You are correct though.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I bet the Seattle fans are bitching about the ways DUI penalties are called as well.
Not cool man, not cool. Can’t you just be happy you won the damn game (with a little help from your friends) and stop rubbing it in?
/still bitter
May 14th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
These guys are millionaires with teenager type thinking. They think they are invincible, and convince themselves they cannot get caught or get hurt or that they might hurt or kill someone else. Thats how teenagers think when they drink and drive. very scary. he’s is lucky all that happened was a DUI. I do think the league/or teams should come down hard on guys that get DUIs. They are investments, and put a black mark on the league.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
goodell had nothing to do with the Allen suspension clown
May 14th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
dumb people do dumb things when they’re drunk.
hell, smart people do dumb things when they’re drunk.
After watching all three of my brothers get DUI/DWI’s, even after seeing the others get one, I’ll never be surprised at who gets a DWI. I happen to think its the most selfish, stupidest fucking thing anyone can do, yet supposedly smart people get them all the time.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
@ Roethlishotdog: I’ll spit in your burger if you ever come to Seattle.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
you’re right, irish, except that Goodell suspended him for four games and then reduced it to two because he “showed remorse”
May 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
@mmonast
Yes and no. Obviously an athlete DUI gets a lot more attention than the average schmo, and there are a ton of drunk drivers out there. But you figure there are only about 5,000 major league athletes (more if you count the WNBA). The average person doesn’t have the disposable income or the amount of free time that a professional athlete does.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
well said tallguy. If for one day every person who had ever gotten a DUI had to wear the same red hat in public, we’d all be blown away.
Driving drunk is a horrible thing to do, and it’s not limited to the poor, dumb or people who went to college at west virginia.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
@ tallguy
Agreed on all counts, though I would be surprised if Stephen Hawking got a DWI.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
To be fair, and just to play devil’s advocate… the pure number of arrests shouldn’t deem the NFL “worse” than the NBA.
Each NFL team has over 60 players on its roster, including future practice squad guys. This is spread out over 32 teams… so at a minimum there are just under 2,000 people in the world that can classify themselves as “NFL players.”
In contrast, the NBA has about 15 players per roster at a given time. And there are 30 teams. This provides us about 450 players that are “NBA players”
if the NFL has more than 4x the number of arrestees than the NBA, then we can say the NFL is worse, but if the ratio is less than 4-to-1, then the NBA is the one with the problem still.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
The last stat I saw said that the average amount of times someone drinks and drives before they finally get busted is around 300. So don’t think you’re safe if you’ve already gotten away with it 299 times.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
grungedave: Good point. I was thinking the same thing but I didn’t wanna figure out the numbers.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
What? i’ve done it a few times only when i had no other choice to get home or get ass. and i’m sure i’m not the only one who has. But who the hell is driving drunk 300 times? I think that stat may be flawed or i’m not understanding it.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
@ outofbounds
That’s pretty amazing, if only because I don’t think I’ve even been out for drinks 300 times.
/lightweight
May 14th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
well said grungedave. Yao still sucks though
May 14th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I live in the Seattle area, and I know people who know people and hear quite a bit about things going on with athletes that aren’t exactly reported in the news. Tatupu isn’t quite the model citizen that the Seahawks have tried to make him look like. He’s a hell of a football player, but he’s quite the idiot when it comes to his personal life. Not to mention, drinking and driving in Kirkland is like asking to go to jail. There are more cops waiting outside the bars there than total people who live there.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Can Arlen Specter please investigate this? This is actually a crime that encroaches on our personal liberty.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Yeah, well I have done it as well… never wasted, but enough to where I could have been cited. But most of the friends I’ve had get a DUI will readily admit that they deserved it and it should have happened to them long before it finally did. I’m not making that stat up though I have multiple friends who’ve had to attend alcohol classes because of DUI’s and that is in their reading.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
good point, grudge dave. more people in the NFL = more arrests.
still, i’d like to start up a list. and pacman can’t go on it … has he been arrested this offseason?
May 14th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
i dont think its an athlete thinking he is above the law (well maybe sometimes) but i think its more of a i dont give a shit…why do regular people drink? because they dont care that they do. i would suggest thats why athletes do it too…they just dont care of the consequences
May 14th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
+1 irish
May 14th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Maybe people drink and drive because uh I don’t know their judgement is impaired from the drinking.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Any time I’ve ever been drinking and driving it was only because I didn’t have a ride home from the bar and got wasted and spent all my money at the bar, not having enough for a cab. With people making millions of dollars, I don’t think they really have that problem.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
they just dont care of the consequences
it’s that they don’t even think the consequences apply to them. it is an elitist attitude.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Maybe people drink and drive because uh I don’t know their judgement is impaired from the drinking.
not saying I never did it, I was probably 17 or 18. but a lot of people get blasted, and before they do, they make sure they have a plan in place to not drive. the judgment needs to come prior to throwing them back.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Definitely agree Sparty, but mature decisions like that aren’t always made when you’re a 19 year old kid and your only concern is how wasted you can get.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
that what the safe driver was for
May 14th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
but then again, i went to a big school campus, where they line up the bars close to where you live so you can just walk, Spartan Den! MSU students don’t drive drunk, we just burn couches and turnover cop cars.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
good point, grudge dave
grudge? What — you still think I’m carrying a grudge from you declaring my Rockets dead prematurely?
May 14th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I make 1% of what these stupid NFLers make and i always get a cab home. Pony up some of your money and call a cab. Dont drive if you are shit faced; especially if you are high profile.