TEMPE, Ariz. — Former Arizona Cardinals receiver Michael Floyd didn’t expect to get cut after he was arrested on charges of driving under the influence and failure to obey a police officer in mid-December, he said Sunday in his first in-depth public comments about the incident and the subsequent fallout during an interview on ESPN Radio’s “Weekend Observations.”

Speaking with former Notre Dame teammate Mike Golic Jr. and Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, Floyd said he expected some sort of punishment to be coming from the Cardinals, but never thought the team would release him.

“It hurt actually,” Floyd said. “It sucked, but I knew something was going to happen, but I did not actually think I was going to get released at all.

“When I did, obviously because of the decision that I made, they made that decision. I went home from work and I felt bad about everything. I felt bad from the beginning, knowing I was in trouble, and I knew there was going to be some punishment. I just felt terrible.”

Floyd showed remorse throughout the interview, at one point saying he “100 percent” wished the incident didn’t happen so he could’ve stayed in Arizona for the remainder of the season instead of going to New England and winning the Super Bowl (he was a healthy scratch for the game).

“That feeling is great knowing that you can stay on one team for your whole career, so obviously it was heartbreaking the stuff that happened,” Floyd said. “If I could go back, definitely I would love to be where I was.”

Floyd was winding down the final year of his rookie contract when he was released.

Floyd was found unconscious behind the wheel of his running vehicle at a Scottsdale intersection early on the morning of Dec. 12, police said. Floyd’s black Cadillac Escalade sat through at least two green-light cycles with him passed out behind the wheel. Officers barricaded his SUV between their cars as they prepared to wake him up, according to the police report detailing the arrest. The SUV’s engine was running and Floyd’s foot was on the brake, the report said.

The fall of the “Yellow Wall.”

Borussia Dortmund has reluctantly accepted its punishment for egregious fan behaviour in Feb. 4’s 1-0 defeat of RB Leipzig by vacating the Sudtribune for next Saturday’s visit from VfL Wolfsburg.

Five days after the hosting of Leipzig, there were found to be 32 cases under investigation by Dortmund police after a minority of Die Borussen support attacked visiting fans – 10 of whom were injured. The local law enforcement noted that people were spat at and attacked with stones and glass bottles, regardless of whether they were children, women, or families.

The bile on the banners of some of the home contingent also shocked the Bundesliga and the wider German football community. Repulsed by Leipzig’s funding from energy drink giant Red Bull – hence the RB in the club’s name – banners were unfurled branding it “football’s enemy,” claiming that “football belongs to us,” and ordering its sporting director, Ralf Rangnick, who has suffered from depression, to “hang yourself,” noted The Telegraph’s Evan Bartlett.

(Courtesy: @BVB)

Dortmund reiterated that it has apologised to Leipzig officials for the conduct of its fans, but did suggest that the “Yellow Wall” closure was excessive. It has pledged to reimburse those with tickets who weren’t involved in the Leipzig violence, as the North Rhine-Westphalia outfit continues to prepare measures and sanctions against the perpetrators.

“It must be possible to go to a stadium with children and family, especially at Dortmund,” said manager Thomas Tuchel three days after the disappointing scenes at the Westfalenstadion.

“I have not perceived it as a wall of hate, I perceived it as very emotional, very supportive,” he added on a stand that has been cited as a model for “safe standing” practices elsewhere in Europe. “I saw the banners, just the sheer number of them. But I did not read them. And there is a major difference between displaying banners and what happened outside the stadium.

“It hurts the soul, and it hurts the fairness, but I did not see a wall of hate.”

Der BVB, coming off the back of a listless performance in a 2-1 loss at bottom-placed SV Darmstadt 98, takes on Portuguese Primeira Liga leader Benfica in Tuesday’s Champions League Round of 16 tilts.

It will then host 14th-placed Wolfsburg in an uncharacteristically cavernous Westfalenstadion next weekend.

Steve Smith, the Baltimore Ravens’ leading receiver in 2014, retired. Kamar Aiken, the go-to target in 2015, is an unrestricted free agent. And Mike Wallace, the most productive wideout last season, has been mentioned as a salary-cap casualty.

Who is going to step up into a leading role for Baltimore in 2017? The Ravens believe it could be slow-developing first-round pick Breshad Perriman.

“I sure hope that Breshad Perriman becomes a true No. 1,” coach John Harbaugh said at the end of the season. “To me, there are signs that is possible. But he has a ways to go; he has a lot of work to do to get it done. You see the radius and you see the speed, and I think you see that here is a guy who has a chance.”

In order for Perriman to become the No. 1 receiver, he has to become more than a two-dimensional one. A majority of his 33 receptions from last season came on either fly or drag routes. Perriman proved he can run past cornerbacks deep downfield and he can zip past defenders after catching short passes in stride. The rest of his game remains a question mark.

His limited route tree is a big factor why he wasn’t more involved in the offense. Perriman ran 320 routes last season and he caught a pass on just 10.3 percent of them, which ranked 64th in the league among wide receivers with at least 30 catches. He is more of a project than the Ravens anticipated. Coaches had to start with the basics with Perriman, teaching him how to properly line up in a stance.

When you look at the Ravens’ top receivers in the past — specifically Smith and Derrick Mason — they were able to get open on their route-running ability and didn’t rely solely on their speed. They were able to get off the line for slants, they shook off defenders on comeback routes and they got out of their breaks on out patterns.

“The thing that I like most about it is now I know exactly what I need to work on,” Perriman said. “I am excited.”

Taking a wide receiver early in the draft is the best way to find a No. 1 receiver. Over the past three seasons, six of the top nine players in receiving yards were selected in the first round: Julio Jones, Odell Beckham Jr., Demaryius Thomas, DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans and A.J. Green.

Some of that work involves meeting up with quarterback Joe Flacco. The first time Perriman caught a pass from Flacco last year was Aug. 22, and it was apparent that Flacco didn’t fully trust Perriman.

Berlin – Germany’s World Cup winner Mario Gotze has been left out of Borussia Dortmund’s squad for Tuesday’s Champions League last 16, first-leg, clash against Benfica.

The 24-year-old has fallen out of favour with coach Thomas Tuchel after a string of below-par performances and is struggling with a leg injury, which kept him out of Saturday’s shock 2-1 defeat at Bundesliga bottom side Darmstadt.

“For him, the game in Lisbon came a bit too soon,” Dortmund’s director of sport Michael Zorc told BVB.de.

Injury and loss of form mean Gotze, who scored the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final, has played just 24 minutes of football so far in 2017.

Dortmund has been boosted with the return of both captain Marcel Schmelzer and Lukasz Piszczek, who missed the Darmstadt defeat with injury.

Wingers Ousmane Dembele and Marco Reus have both shaken off knocks picked up in Darmstadt.

Tuesday’s fixture at the Estadio da Luz will be the first meeting between Benfica and Dortmund since the first round of the 1963-64 European Cup, a tie the German club won 6-2 on aggregate.

The second leg in Germany is scheduled for March 8.