Jerome Felton apologizes for arrest

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EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Minnesota Vikings fullback Jerome Felton apologized on Wednesday after being arrested for DUI last weekend.

Felton apologized at an optional practice, four days after Eden Prairie police arrested him at a McDonald's on suspicion of driving while impaired and refusing to take a chemical test.

Felton was contrite on Wednesday, saying he regretted bringing some negative attention to his new team. He was signed in the offseason to compete for the starting fullback job and clear a path for Adrian Peterson and Toby Gerhart.

"Everybody on this team and in this organization has been good to me and the fans have been great," Felton said. "I love it here. I can't put myself in negative situations that don't have a positive impact on the team and the community. That's something that's very important to me and I just want to sincerely apologize to the fans, No. 1, the organization and everybody around the Vikings."

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier says he was "extremely disappointed" when notified of Felton's arrest. Frazier met with Felton to discuss the incident this week, and the fullback was on the field for the entire optional practice on Wednesday.

"We talked about some things when we got together for our first OTAs in our meetings about how we wanted to conduct ourselves," Frazier said. "Then when a new guy comes to the club and he's a veteran guy and something happened like it did over the weekend, it's very disappointing. It's something we'll have to deal with and have to address, but you don't want that to drown out all of the good things that some of our players are doing and what they're doing in the community."

Many Vikings players turned out last week to help build a playground at a Minneapolis school, and several played host to a group from Special Olympics Minnesota after practice on Wednesday.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

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