ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) -Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Tommy Kelly accepted responsibility for his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, saying he made a bad mistake.
“I just take it as lessons learned what not to do,” Kelly said Wednesday. “I doubt if it will ever happen again, you know what I’m saying. I just probably didn’t make the right decision. I just probably should have left my car where it was.”
Kelly went out drinking Sunday night after the Raiders returned from a road trip to Kansas City. He was booked at Oakland’s Glenn E. Dyer Detention Facility on Monday and later released.
“We usually have a driver but that night late when I got over there, that’s when I found out we didn’t have a driver,” he said. “ If I knew that beforehand, I probably would have got somebody to come pick me up at the house and we wouldn’t even be talking about this right now.”
included $18.125 million in guaranteed money.
Coach Lane Kiffin sat down with Kelly on Wednesday to talk about the situation.
“He just was like, ‘you can’t take that risk,”’ Kelly said. “Don’t even do it. He understood. … It was a dumb decision on my own. If I could go back I would have probably just left my car at the hotel and came back and got it the next day.”
Depending on the outcome of the case, Kelly could face punishment from the NFL. Kiffin said the team would allow the NFL to handle the discipline.
Kelly’s arrest was only the latest distraction for the Raiders, who are also dealing with the speculation about Kiffin’s job security. Reports surfaced over the weekend that owner Al Davis was on the verge of firing his second-year coach and no one from the organization has told Kiffin that those are untrue.
Davis has not made a move yet and Kiffin is preparing the team for its game Sunday in Buffalo. Kiffin said he has not talked to Davis in two weeks and does not know what his status is.
“All I know is what people tell me or what’s in the paper that front office people have informed them that he’s making a decision whenever it’s coming, all the different things that come across each day,” Kiffin said. “As crazy as it sounds, I know as much as you guys know.”
g them to focus only on what they can control.
The players say the lesson has gotten through.
“I really don’t pay attention,” Kelly said. “That really is not my business so I worry about whoever I’m lined up in front of. Because the business between them, that’s their business. I can’t worry about that.”
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