Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Ed Oliver said he felt "violated" when discussing the events surrounding a May arrest in which charges were later dropped.
Oliver was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated (DWI) and unlawfully carrying a weapon stemming on May 16, but the Montgomery County, Texas, district attorney dismissed the charges in July.
Oliver told reporters Monday that his breathalyzer test at the time registered 0.0 and he does not know how that reading could have led to his arrest. Oliver said the officer on the scene maintained he was intoxicated, despite Oliver saying he was just tired. That led to frustration on the defensive tackle's part because he had passed the breathalyzer exam. Oliver also told reporters that he took a blood test following his release from jail in May.
"You know what, I had, I'm certain, 0.0 of anything," Oliver said. "I'm not sure how you get arrested with nothing in your system. Honestly, I don't know. I don't know how I got arrested. That's one of the things I'll say is life can hit you quick. Even if you're innocent, you can still go to jail for nothing. You've just got to do what you got to go, bruh. They say you've got to jail? Go to jail, don't resist, go to jail. Like I said, light at the end of the tunnel, come back 0.00, let him go, drop all the charges. … Did they say you've got to go to jail? Guess what, you've got to go to jail that day. It's not right, but it is what it is. You can't fight five officers. Might as well just go to jail. I ain't have no choice."
Oliver said he was then given a jumpsuit with holes in it upon his arrival to jail.
"Man, I didn't feel right," Oliver said. "I didn't work my life and walk the straight line my whole life to be put in a jumpsuit to be taken to jail for what? So that's how I feel violated."
When Oliver's charges were dropped, the Bills issued a statement of support for the player.
Oliver's arrest came one week before the murder of George Floyd while in Minneapolis policy custody, and he said those events put things into perspective that it could have been him had things played out differently.
"It really puts things into perspective like that could have been me," Oliver said. "If I ain't just 'yes sir, no sir' and just comply. All it took was for me to move the wrong way or do something the wrong way and that could have been me."
