{"id":787708,"date":"2026-07-27T17:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/787708\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T17:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:48:10","slug":"everson-griffen-my-desire-is-to-play-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/787708\/","title":{"rendered":"Everson Griffen: My desire is to play again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defensive end Everson Griffen hasn\u2019t played in the NFL since the 2021 season, but he is not ready to throw in the towel on returning to the field. <\/p>\n

Griffen\u2019s second stint with the Vikings ended with him landing on the non-football illness while dealing with mental health issues and he missed time for similar reasons during the 2018 season as well. Griffen has had multiple arrests for driving under the influence since he last played in the league, but told Josina Anderson on The Exhibit Show that he\u2019s been sober for a year and hopes to resume his career. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy desire is to play again<\/a>. . . . I know the things that I\u2019ve done,\u201d Griffen said. \u201cI\u2019ve burnt bridges, but I feel like that\u2019s reparable. I\u2019m willing to do anything to mend them. I\u2019m saying clear, you don\u2019t have to worry about me going back to using again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffen had 85.5 sacks during his career, but is 38 and the baggage of his time away from the game isn\u2019t likely to fade away despite his sobriety. Griffen was charged with driving without an ignition interlock device<\/a> after being stopped for speeding in Minnesota last week. Griffen was required to use the device, which blocks a car from starting unless the operator passes a breathalyzer test, after his previous legal problems. <\/p>\n

Anderson asked Griffen about last week\u2019s incident and he said that he\u2019s no longer mandated to use the interlock as long as he passes a driving test, but failed it when he took it and \u201cforgot\u201d when he got in a car that did not have the device installed. That matter will make its way through the legal system, but the timing is unlikely to help Griffen convince NFL teams that he\u2019s in position to overcome his age and layoff to become a productive player once again. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defensive end Everson Griffen hasn\u2019t played in the NFL since the 2021 season, but he is not ready…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-787708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}