Ex-NFL Player Arrested After Urinating on Elderly Woman Mid-Flight and Battling Delta Crew

Former NLF offensive lineman Gosder Cherilus was arrested Sunday morning when Delta Air Lines flight 154 from Boston to Dublin returned to its origin. The 40-year-old ex-professional athlete reportedly urinated on his seat opponent.

The flight was four hours late to begin with. An hour into its journey Cherilus, who appeared to be intoxicated, escalated an earlier altercation with another passenger over their seats.

It was about 1 a.m. when he is said to have walked up to an elderly female passenger, exposed himself, and urinated on her for approximately 20 seconds. Flight attendants tried to intervene but he became aggressive – and reports are that he struck an elderly man with his right hand – before collapsing into a different seat.

The pilot made the decision to turn back, landing at Logan Airport around 2 a.m. State Police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers boarded the plane on arrival. The 6 foot 6 inch 280 pound man refused to comply with orders to disembark. Police reports indicate that officers had to use two sets of handcuffs due to his size and his uncooperative behavior.

He was charged with disorderly conduct, interfering with the operation of an aircraft, and resisting arrest. He was arraigned in East Boston District Court today, where he pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on $2,500 bail. He has, however, apologized for his behavior (which sort of suggests he wasn’t ‘not guilty of all charges’).

In his statement, Cherilus complains about the flight delay and attributes his behavior to a combination of sleep deprivation and ta sleeping medication he had taken for the first time. In other words, it’s not his fault and his behavior is “not representative of his character.”

Delta, for its part, apologized for the delay which is blamed on CrowdStrike and rebooked passengers to Dublin the following night.

Originally a Detroit Lions 17th overall draft pick in 2008, Cherilus played for the Lions, Indianapolis Colts, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, starting 116 out of 132 games. He retired in 2016 after earning more than $40 million during his career.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. Well with his 40 million he can now fly private as no airline is gonna let him through their doors. A big physical man like that, urinating on an elderly woman, it’s just disgusting.

  2. He will hopefully be forced to give a chunk of that $40M he earned to the person he urinated on.

  3. Very sad . And it is similar “in spirit” if not in action to far too much these days.. There have been allegations that some players have been brain damaged by the sport, but that is no excuse for such behavior. I hope he gets help, it looks like he can afford it.

  4. The elderly woman should sue him for $40 million and Delta should ban him for life.

  5. If I’m taking an overnight flight and plan to use sleep aids, I wait until we’ve take off and reach cruising altitude. The chances (at least in mind) of something happening that would require my full attention go way down at that point.

  6. What the hell is a “seat opponent?”

    Poor diction — some people do read carefully & critically.

  7. That elderly lady was so uncool. He also was so not cool. Bad vibes especially the urinating on the other person part and the aggressive behavior. No bueno/no thank you.

  8. Sleeping med for the first time when you’re going to be sleeping in public?!?!

    My first thought on read the description was drugs–but I didn’t think prescription. The entire class of the stronger sleep stuff definitely has the potential for various bad reactions. Do it in private to learn how you will react.

  9. I love how these weasels always blame something else to try to avoid blame, whether they’re people urinating on other people or sexual assaulters. Remember the preacher molesting the female kid who blamed his meds? Episodes like this are exactly why we need to list more people on the no-fly list.

  10. Fake news, a DELTA flight 4 hours late? The lady should have grabbed his crank and pointed it away from her.

    Great blog Gary, feet, pee, smells…..how about some NEWS!

  11. Not going to apologize for him. He will pay a sizable amount. But American football (and other contact sports) are the cause of CTE . NFL Didn’t acknowledge it until 2013 or 2014. His timeline seems to fit regarding retirement, as physical issues don’t show up for years. There are no tests or treatment, only autopsy. Unless someone has more knowledge, it seems this man had not been a trouble maker prior, making his action a departure from his normal behavior. Getting only a couple head hits can do this. After playing football continually for 14 years…well I hope it was the ambien. And everyone is made whole.

  12. We’re friends with a 35+ yr AA flight attendant. She told us of a lady in First (Business?) on an overnight international flight who stripped completely naked and cruised through the cabin. Turns out she’d taken Ambien – maybe mixed with alcohol – and when she finally “came to” she had no idea of what she had done.

  13. “It wasn’t MY fault, it was the meds…..and the delay’s fault.”
    Yawn….I’d hope they throw book at him including about 30 or so days in can but it’s Massachusetts so neither of those two things will happen. Maybe the AUSA will take the case from the state.

  14. It is all about the makers of Ambien selling dangerous drugs and airplanes not having enough toilets (sarcasm.)

  15. What a low life. He’s most definitely a demoncrat. Worthless animal should be put down.

  16. OMG, we now have A.I. writing these articles. Last thing I will read with Gary’s name on it. Be a reporter, anyone can use A.I. to write a story. Sad, that even some of our trusted websites have resorted to simply asking A.I. to write the story based on an outline. Sad sad sad.

  17. Typo: NLF –> NFL

    Also “seat opponent” has been brought up twice already in previous comments, so consider this a plus one 😉

  18. That elderly lady was rayciss for complaining and trying to put a black man in jail.

    You just KNOW the race card is coming.

  19. Urinating on another passenger should automatically result being put on the airline’s no fly list. Petition for removal after a set period of time.

  20. Some people pay to have this done to them. Delta offeres it for free as part of the exceptional onboard product. Is that considered a hard or soft product?

  21. What the hell does the struck “…which is blamed on Crowdstrike” have to do with the article?

Comments are closed.