AP reports Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D), a liberal department-store heir, was pressed to apologize for declaring in a Minnesota Public Radio interview that troubled pro football players are comparable to American veterans returned from war.
Dayton theorized on the troubles of professional football players, including Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, and said that football was "basically slightly civilized war."
Peterson faces a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest after a confrontation with an off-duty police officer at a night club in Houston. Dayton defended Peterson in the MPR interview as "an upstanding citizen and really fine role model." If....you exclude shoving police and needing to be subdued by three officers. Dayton noted that NFL players are off about half the year -- more than athletes from other sports.
"It means that young males who are heavily armored and heavily psyched as necessary to carry out their job are probably more susceptible to be in bars at 2 o'clock in the morning and have problems, or DUIs. It doesn't excuse it, it just says that it probably comes with it," Dayton said.
"I regret my mistake, and I apologize for it," Dayton later said.
