MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Vikings safety Willie Offord was arrested earlier this week and charged with drunken driving, a Minnesota State Patrol spokesman said Wednesday.
Offord was stopped by a state trooper at 2:25 a.m. Tuesday on westbound Interstate 394 in Golden Valley and charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree drunken driving, said Lt. Mark Peterson of the State Patrol.
Peterson said he had not received a report with Offord's blood-alcohol level, but that the charge means it would have been less than 0.20 percent. The state's legal limit is 0.08 percent.
The trooper stopped Offord for a speeding violation and failure to signal a lane change, Peterson said.
Offord was booked into the Hennepin County Jail at 3:29 a.m. and released more than two hours later. He is scheduled to appear in court April 26 and will be prosecuted by the Golden Valley city attorney's office, Peterson said.
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The Vikings signed Offord, their special teams captain in 2005, to a two-year contract extension last month. He is rehabilitating a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and was limited during a veteran minicamp this month.
The Vikings believe he will be healthy when training camp begins, and Offord could compete with free-agent acquisition Tank Williams for the starting strong safety job.
Offord's agent, David Canter, did not return a telephone message left at his office by The Associated Press on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Vikings said the team had no comment.
