Pitt Football Players Apologize For Off-Season Legal Troubles

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Today was the first day of practice for the Pitt football team – and two of their players who ran into legal trouble during the off-season wanted to address their situations.

In June, police in Jefferson Hills stopped Pitt All-American wide receiver Tyler Boyd during a traffic stop.

Police say Boyd changed lanes on Route 885 without signaling.

But when the officer approached Boyd's car, he said Boyd smelled of alcohol and Boyd admitted he'd had two shots earlier in the night.

"Couple months ago, I made a real dumb mistake," he said. "We live, we learn, even on the field and off the field. You're always gonna make mistakes, but one thing that I strive for and, the people around me always keep in my head, you just never make the same mistake twice. So, like I, said we just gonna live and learn from this and I'm gonna come back even strong than I was previous -- until this point. By the time, we gonna have everything cleared and ready to go for the season."

Late last month, boyd entered a program designed for non-violent, first-time DUI offenders.

He'll be on probation for a year and his driver's license will be suspended for three months.

Last week, Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi suspended Boyd for the season opener against Youngstown State, along with fellow Pitt player Rori Blair.

Blair was charged with DUI last month, after he was stopped for speeding on the Parkway East.

Police say Blair was going 117 miles per hour and smelled of marijuana.

"I wanna say I apologize for my mistake that I made," he said. "It was really immature of me. I just want to say sorry to the whole world and sorry for letting the whole University of Pitt down. And I just wanna make it better."

Again, today Narduzzi confirmed Boyd and Blair will miss Pitt's opener on Sept. 5, but wouldn't say what other discipline they might face.

"All along, we know on the inside, in our own house, what we're gonna do," he said. "You don't always tell everyone what's going on in your family, you know, if you're having marital troubles, you don't go out and throw it out there."

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