Jaguars' defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. apologizes for arrest, says he doesn't have a maturity issue

Jacksonville, FL — About a week after his arrest in St. Petersburg, Jaguars' defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. is issuing an apology.

As he reported for the Jags camp Wednesday, Fowler made the following statement to the media:

“First I would like to start off by apologizing to the organization of the Jacksonville Jaguars and also the city of Jacksonville for my actions and for what had gone down. I just wanted to let people know and everybody know that’s not me as a person, I’m a better person than that and it won’t happen again.”

Fowler only answered a few questions on the topic of his arrest, saying he doesn't have a maturity issue and that it was only ‘a bump in the road.’

“Maturity is not a problem. I’m actually growing a lot especially with this new structure and everything that we have. It’s starting to carve me into the person that I want to be, the professional that I want to be. It’s just a bump in the road that I just have to get over and put past me and show you guys, show the organization and show the city that I’m a role model and I want to go in that route and not go in another bad route,” Fowler says.

As for his conversations with EVP of Football Operations Tom Coughlin and Head Coach Doug Marrone, Fowler described them as positive.

Fowler says, "“They’ve been very positive and actually made me feel really good to see them supporting me and just being there for me and asking me if I’m okay. Trying to fix the situation in the best way possible way and like I told Tom, I’m very sorry and I told him that I apologize and I can’t make the organization look like that and put us in situations like that because that’s not us, that’s not how we are as a team, and that’s not how we are as an organization. We had a good talk and I told him from here on out nothing else will happen.”

Fowler is charged with two misdemeanor counts- battery and criminal mischief, after St. Petersburg police say he got into argument with a man over his driving.

He’s then accused of hitting the man, knocking off his glasses and stepping on them, before going on to throw the man's grocery bag into a lake.