Former Vikings defensive tackle arrested for DUI and child neglect
By Adam Patrick
Former Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Chris Hovan was recently arrested.
When the Minnesota Vikings used a first-round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft on former Boston College defensive tackle Chris Hovan, the team was hoping he could develop into the franchise’s next great interior defensive lineman.
The Vikings had already seen guys like Alan Page, John Randle, Henry Thomas, and Keith Millard dominate on the inside of the defensive line during their history. So Minnesota was thinking Hovan could emerge as the team’s next dominant defensive tackle.
Unfortunately, that isn’t how things turned out. Hovan only spent five seasons with the Vikings and he wasn’t even able to accumulate a total of 20 sacks.
Former Minnesota Vikings defender arrested in Tampa on Monday
After five years in Minnesota, Hovan went on to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he ended up spending five years there before his time in the NFL came to an end in 2010.
Following his time in the league, Hovan remained in Florida and he’s held a number of gigs as an assistant football coach in places like the CFL, the Arena Football League, and the University of South Florida.
Unfortunately, the former Vikings defensive lineman has also dealt with his share of demons since his time in the NFL came to a close.
Most recently, Hovan was arrested on Monday after he drove drunk with his child in the passenger seat of his vehicle. His blood-alcohol content level was found to be higher than 0.30 at the time of the incident, well above Florida’s legal BAC limit of 0.08 to operate a motor vehicle.
Following his arrest, Hovan was charged with DUI and child neglect. Luckily, the child in the passenger seat of the car was not injured in any way. Things could’ve turned out much, much worse than they did.
This isn’t Hovan’s first run-in with the law since he retired from the NFL. He was charged with DUI back in 2015 as well and in 2018, he was ordered to stay away from his four children following domestic violence allegations.
Hovan is very lucky that his child or anyone else wasn’t seriously injured when he decided to get behind the wheel with a BAC level above 0.30. It’s pretty clear that he has a substance abuse problem and some serious help appears to be necessary in order to prevent something like this from ever happening again.