Agent says Reed didn't resist arrest

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PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin says kicker Jeff Reed will play in Sunday's home game against the Minnesota Vikings despite a recent brush with the law.

Reed is charged with simple assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness for allegedly scuffling with Pittsburgh police outside a bar near Heinz Field in the hours after Sunday's win over the Cleveland Browns.

Reed

Police were citing Reed's teammate Matt Spaeth for allegedly urinating outside the bar when Reed intervened. Police say Reed took a "fighting stance" and challenged the officers.

Reed is expected to receive a court summons in the mail.

Police say Reed took a "fighting stance" when officers arrived, and became unruly when police tried to restrain him. But the kicker's agent, Don Henderson, said Reed didn't raise his fists in front of police.

Henderson denied that allegation in comments to Pittsburgh media outlets Monday, but declined to elaborate when asked about it by The Associated Press.

"We're contesting it," Henderson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It involved somebody else on the team, [Reed] got out to try to help and basically got attacked by the police. He was with his parents. He got out and tried to help and evidently they didn't want to hear that. ... It was somebody else trying to do something and Jeff ended up getting slammed in the middle."

This is Reed's second brush with the law this year.

He paid $543 in fines and restitution after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct and criminal mischief for damaging a paper towel dispenser in a convenience store bathroom in New Alexandria in February.

"He may try to talk him to death, but he's not going to try to hit him," Henderson said, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "That's just not his personality at all. He's about as nonconfrontational a person I know."

The Associated Press could not immediately locate Spaeth's agent for comment Tuesday.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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