Hot on the heels of a $42 million contract extension, Lofa Tatupu got pulled over in Kirkland WA and arrested for a suspected DUI. When he finally took a BAC, he blew in at nearly twice the legal limit. Tatupu was pulled over after a Kirkland police officer observed him driving too quickly in a 2006 Hyundia Accent (!).

Tatupu promptly apologized for being a dumbass.

Response from Seattle PI readers seems to fall into one of three camps:

1) Hang him! (a surprising number of people with Greek names choosing this one ;)

2) Everyone's entitled to one mistake, don't botch it again

3) What the hell was he doing driving a Hyundai? (It belongs to his girlfriend, FWIW.)

PI Columnist Jim Moore weighs in on the side of "There but for the grace of God go I" and apparently thinks, as do the Seattle management, that Tatupu will make amends.

I can't claim that there haven't been a couple of times when I drove but probably shouldn't have, but then I never blew a BAC at nearly twice the limit either. While this isn't murder or anything like it (not to invoke an infamous former player or anything), DUI's can have serious repercussions precisely because they involve such dangerous behavior.  Lofa Tatupu is lucky he didn't hurt anyone, and he would be well served to follow through on his promise to fly right from hereon. He brought that kind of discipline to working his way from Maine to USC for football; there's no reason he couldn't do it in order to do his part in keeping the metro-Seattle roadways that bit safer for everyone else.

Besides, with a $42 million contract in hand, he should be able to afford cab fare in the meantime.