The Minnesota Vikings are set to officially start their training camp with the “Back Together Weekend” on Saturday, July 29, albeit their players have been having issues after being embroiled in legal battles. Just a few days ago, the Vikings’ first-round draft pick, Jordan Addison, was reportedly cited by police for speeding and reckless driving on a freeway, now their former defensive end Everson Griffen has joined the list.
Griffen headed to the NFL after being drafted as the fourth-round pick of Minnesota in the 2010 NFL Draft and played almost a decade with the team, albeit he had brief stints with the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions in the meantime.
Ex-Vikings DE Everson Griffen arrested for DUI-related charges
According to a report from CBS News Minnesota, Everson was arrested and booked into Carver County Jail at 12:41 p.m. on Saturday for ‘4th degree Driving Under Influence and operating a Motor Vehicle’ over 0.08 in a DUI state, albeit he was released after an hour and has not been formally charged as of yet.
According to a jail roster, former #Vikings player Everson Griffen was arrested for driving under the influence in Chanhassen.
He was booked & released Saturday afternoon.
(A previous tweet included personal information that is public record but not necessary for our report) pic.twitter.com/sAL71pHNfL
— Chris Long (@ChrisLongKSTP) July 23, 2023
The Vikings first got worried for their four-time Pro Bowler back in 2018 after witnessing some of his ‘incidents’ and advised him to take some time off the franchise. He later underwent a mental evaluation in the same year.
In December of 2021, the ex-Vikings star revealed he had bipolar disorder. In November of the same year, he was seen with a pistol on social media and later called the police in the early morning saying someone was inside his home as well as was trying to kill him. Police found no one upon reaching the spot and drew him out of the house after convincing him that no one was trying to harm him.
What does DE Everson Griffen’s contract with the Vikings look like?
Griffen played in Minnesota from 2010 to 2019 and was named a Pro Bowler four times during this stint, including three straight seasons from 2015 to 2017. In 2020, he opted to become a free agent before signing a one-year deal with the Cowboys.
The 35-year-old DE was traded to the Lions two months later and then he again joined hands with the Vikings in 2021, albeit he couldn’t appear in the Vikings’ final seven games in that year due to ongoing mental health issues. He became a free agent later and never played with any franchise after that. The second-team All-Pro pick in 2017 amassed the fourth-highest sack total in Vikings history with 79.5 sacks.
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