With the Ravens “still working [their] way through it” according to Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, Rolando McClain told the Madison Weekly News his side of the story as his football future hangs in limbo.
McClain claims the police arrested the wrong man on Sunday, when he was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
“The situation could have been avoided on my part,” McClain told the paper. “I was at the park in an attempt to keep my brother out of trouble as he said he was going to the park because some guys had spit on his car and had harassed him.”
McClain claims he was with his grandmother at her home grilling when his brother had came to the house, furious with the incident involving his vehicle.
“The police were already at the park when I arrived,” he said. I tried to get my brother to calm down. Police thought I cussed them. It wasn’t me. They arrested the wrong guy.”
Anyone who has watched the popular FOX show C.O.P.S. knows that police are constantly blamed for having the wrong person in custody even though the party arrested is innocent until proven guilty. Although McClain feels that he he was falsely arrested, claims from arresting office Todd Walker say otherwise, especially the fact that McClain reportedly kept yanking his arms away from Walker as he tried to arrest him.
Police spokesman Lt. John Crouch further detailed the incident.
“Some of the crowed was belligerent and began yelling back at the officers,” Crouch said when speaking of the 700 people who had gathered for a softball game at the park. Police had responded at 7:30 p.m. for calls of a fight in the park. “One of the individuals, as he was walking off the street, yelled to the crowd, ‘(Expletive) the police.'”
Officer Walker grabbed the individual yelling the obscenity and the individual repeatedly jerked his arm away from the grasp of the officer.
That individual was McClain.
“He never swung at the officers. He just kept jerking away from them,” Crouch said. McClain reportedly responded during the incident, “you told me to walk, and I’m walking,” according to police.
McClain wasn’t the only citizen involved in the scuffle with police as multiple friends of McClain were scuffling with police while others attempted to intervene and let order be restored by the authorities.
Given what appeared a final chance to get his life together and continue his NFL career, McClain signed with the Ravens five days after being released by the Oakland Raiders, who drafted him eighth overall in 2010. McClain is scheduled to play on a one-year deal worth $700,000, which to protect the Ravens has not a single dollar guaranteed.
McClain knows this latest arrest – his second in the offseason – could be the final nail in the coffin on his NFL career.
“This probably could end my chance to play football,” McClain said. “I haven’t cried in years, but I had tears in my eyes. I wasn’t going to let my brother get into a fight.”
Either the Ravens really are doing their due diligence to investigate the matter, or, if the police reports are to be believed, just waiting to see how their draft turns out. With 11 selections remaining and plenty of good, young and less troubled linebacking talent available in the second round, the Ravens could trade up and select one, which could also mean McClain’s time in Baltimore is over before it even really started.
