Troubled LB pleads guilty to second DUI
Jets linebacker Dylan Donahue pleaded guilty to a DUI charge in Montana on Friday, the second time in three days he struck a plea deal over a drunken-driving incident.
Donahue received a three-month suspended sentence and a $1,000 fine for the DUI crash in his hometown of Billings, Mont. The charge stemmed from an arrest May 9, 2017.
The incident occurred 10 days after the Jets drafted him in the fifth round. He crashed his SUV into a parked pickup truck at 2:25 a.m. He and a passenger suffered minor injuries after the SUV flipped. Donahue’s blood-alcohol level was 0.137. The state’s legal limit is 0.08.
Donahue was arrested again in February after a wrong-way crash in the Lincoln Tunnel. He pleaded guilty to that DWI charge Wednesday.
The NFL is investigating both arrests, and Donahue likely faces a suspension. He would be the third Jets player suspended this offseason if he is disciplined by the league.
Donahue spoke to reporters Thursday and said he has not had any alcohol since his February arrest. He voluntarily entered a treatment facility in March. “I can’t say [the legal situation] hasn’t [weighed on my mind],” Donahue said. “It was a pretty big deal. It’s something I’m not proud of, obvi
ously.” Jets coach Todd Bowles does not sound concerned about the league’s new rule that penalizes players for leading with their helmets. “We teach it the right way, and they play the right way,” Bowles said. “It’s really teaching football to be played the right way. There are going to be hard collisions, but if the helmet’s up and you have to keep the helmet out of the way and hit with the shoulder, which most of the team do all the time, there’s an occasional head-tohead when someone’s putting their head down, but we don’t teach it any differently. We feel like we’ve been teaching it the right way the whole time.”
The Jets will have referees in next week to explain rule changes, including the helmet rule.
“We understand the rule and the education of it,” Bowles said. “I think it’s more for the officials to call than the teams to have. We understand what the ruling is, but again, we’re teaching it the right way, and we’re not trying to teach it that way at all, so it shouldn’t affect us. There may be a mistake here or there, but we try to avoid that as much as possible.”