Dante Fowler Receives Probation in Plea Deal for July Assault Case

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler was given "12 months probation, 75 hours of community service and more than $1,000 in fines" after pleading no contest to misdemeanor battery, criminal mischief and petty theft, according to TMZ Sports. 

The plea deal came after Fowler allegedly assaulted a man in a parking lot in July.

Per that report, "Officials say Fowler got upset with a man after he criticized his driving—and proceeded to hit the guy, knock off his glasses, stepped on them... and then grabbed the man's bag of newly purchased liquor and threw it in a nearby lake."

He was facing up to a year in jail. 

Fowler apologized publicly in July following the incident, per Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com:

"I just want 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.

"I told Tom [Coughlin] that I'm sorry. I told him that I apologize. I can't make the organization look like that and put us in situations like that. That's not us. That's not how we are as a team. That's not how we are as an organization. We had a good talk. I told them from here on out, nothing else will happen."

Fowler has had other off-field issues in his short career. In March 2016, he was arrested in Miami Beach and charged with resisting arrest and for assaulting a police officer/EMT, per DiRocco, though "he completed a pretrial intervention program" and had those charges dropped.

Additionally, a video in February 2016 also surfaced of Fowler filming a fight between the mother of his child and his girlfriend at the time.

Fowler appeared in all 16 games in the 2017 season, registering 21 tackles, eight sacks, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries.