Former Falcons OLB Dante Fowler ordered to pay fine for 2017 battery

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A six-person civil jury in Florida ordered former Falcons and current Cowboys linebacker Dante Fowler to pay $280,000 for a 2017 battery, Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News reports.

Fowler signed a one-year $3 million deal with the Cowboys after being released by the Falcons earlier in the offseason. But this altercation dates back to his Jacksonville days when he struck a man outside an apartment complex in St. Petersburg, Florida.

“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,” Fowler said then. “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 served a one-game NFL suspension during the 2018 season for the incident. Fowler pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery, criminal mischief and petty theft. Here is a breakdown from Gehlken:

According to the arrest report, in July 2017, Fowler was driving and failed to stop fully at a stop sign, nearly resulting in a collision with another vehicle. Alvin Trotman, then 55 and a resident at the apartment complex, witnessed the near collision and made a comment.

Fowler then allegedly exited his vehicle, struck Trotman, stepped on his eyeglasses and threw Trotman’s grocery bag, which contained recently liquor, into a nearby lake. Trotman, who turned 60 this week, filed a civil lawsuit in August of 2018. In his complaint, he claimed he “suffered a torn rotator cuff and exacerbation of cervical spine injuries, among other injuries” as a result of Fowler knocking him to the ground.

The Falcons never got the production they thought they were getting when they signed Fowler to a lucrative three-year deal several offseasons ago. Instead of hitting quarterbacks, he was hitting 60-year-old men. It seems this entire mess is behind him, though.

Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire

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