Tennessee tailback Arian Foster apologized for his role in an off-campus incident early Sunday, but said Tuesday he was only trying to defuse an argument between teammates.

"Just an apology on behalf of my university, my teammates and my family. I put my family's name at risk," said Foster, who will be suspended for the first half of Saturday's game at Arkansas (TV: ESPN2, 7 p.m.). "I want to say at large, sorry about that."

Foster said he was trying to resolve a dispute involving teammate Antonio Wardlow, who was later arrested with teammate David Holbert for scuffling with each other outside GoodFellas Sports Bar & Grill on Sunday around 3 a.m.

The three players, all 20 years old, were charged with disorderly conduct and underage consumption. Holbert, a reserve fullback, will be suspended for all of Saturday's game, while Wardlow will miss the next two games.

Wardlow, a redshirt freshman reserve safety, was also charged with public intoxication.

A police report said that Foster was pushing, yelling and cursing another male inside the bar. Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk said that man was not a teammate of Foster's.

"It's totally inaccurate," Foster said of KPD's version of events. "I was out with my family. My brother and sister came in town for the game and we were just out having a good time. I didn't have any confrontation with anybody. I've heard that a couple times, and it's false."

DeBusk said Tuesday that KPD officers did not see Foster acting as a peacemaker when they arrived on the scene in response to a report of a disturbance involving as many as 70 people.

"You don't act as a peacemaker by shoving people and cursing at them," DeBusk said. "And that's exactly what happened.

"He was not trying to break up a fight. Absolutely not. Not when the officers were in there. He may have prior to the officers getting there, but when the officers were there, that's what they saw and that's why he was arrested."

Foster said he was not sure why he arrested.

"You see two big guys going at it, it looks like they're going at it, when in essence I was just trying to calm him down," he said. "When emotions are high and people are really aggravated for whatever the reason, a voice isn't going to calm them down. I feel like I tried to detain him by grabbing. I guess he took it as I was being aggressive towards him and drying to fight him. I wasn't going to fight him."

Once arrested, Foster said he was not disrespectful towards officers. DeBusk said that there was no report of Foster using vulgar language with police.

Sunday's arrests now make seven UT football players who have been arrested since May. Five of those arrests included alcohol-related charges. Another player smelled of alcohol when arrested but was only charged with disorderly conduct.

Foster said he would not question his suspension, but that sometimes suspensions aren't the most effective means of deterrence.

"Everybody's an individual. Everybody does what they feel like they need to do or they want to do," he said. "To make an example out of somebody might not make somebody not want to do it. It happens all over the country every day, but you can't just say it's going to stop because of a punishment. It's on individuals. It's on us."

Several other players were at the bar — UT coach Phillip Fulmer declined to say how many on Monday — but Foster said no one was telling him to leave.

The mistake Foster made was not leaving soon enough, he said.

"I could have got away immediately," Foster said. "It's hard to say what I'd do differently because when you're in the heat of the moment, your natural reaction is to protect your brother. I feel like I've got brothers on this team. I was trying to protect them, their future, their career and in that, I jeopardized mine.

"To say would I do it over again, I don't know. I haven't put a whole of thought into it. They were at risk, and I was trying to calm the situation down."

Foster did express frustration that athletes are subject to more scrutiny than average students.

"I feel like football players as a whole, just athletes in general, are put up on the flagpole to be exposed. If students get arrested, it's not going to be in the paper, you know?" he said. "It's just we're held to this high standard, and it gets tough sometimes. We're human. Everybody's human. I think people forget that ain't nobody have no wings or no halos on them.

"People make mistakes, and when we make mistakes and I think when we're scrutinized publicly and it embarrasses us, our university and most importantly in my case, my family. I represent my family's name, my brother, my mother. That's the one thing, they've got to go to work and their jobs and they got to hear this everyday. And that's what's eating me up."

Senior wide receiver Jayson Swain said the team will stand behind Foster and the other suspended players.

"Arian's pretty mature about things he does, good or bad," Swain said. "He made a mistake, and he knows he did that and he's willing to take the consequences. That's the true sign of a man, and he's growing up every day.

"Everybody makes mistakes. We're behind him; we're behind our brothers."