Matt Kryger/IndyStar/USA Today Network
Former Denver Bronco player and two-time Super Bowl champion Terrell Davis, seen here at a 2019 event, said he was wrongly accused of punching a flight attendant on Saturday when he asked for a cup of ice cream.
Programming note: Terrell Davis will have his first cable interview with Erin Burnett today. It is scheduled to air live at 1:00 p.m. ET on CNN.
CNN
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The children of NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Davis were looking forward to their California vacation when their father was inexplicably handcuffed and thrown off a United Airlines plane.
“I felt demoralized. I felt ashamed, humiliated. I felt like my dignity was taken away from me, right in front of my children and my family. And I want United to be held accountable for this,” the two-time Super Bowl champion told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
Davis is still waiting for a direct apology from United Airlines, he told “GMA” Wednesday morning. CNN has reached out to United Airlines for comment.
The incident happened Saturday at the end of a flight from Denver to Orange County, California. Davis, 51, was flying with his wife, two sons and daughter when one of the sons asked for a cup of ice during drink service, Davis wrote on Instagram. A flight attendant “either did not hear his request or ignored it and continued down our row,” the post said.
“I calmly reached behind me and gently tapped (the caregiver) on the arm to get his attention and ask him again for a cup of ice cream for my son,” Davis wrote. “His reaction and the events that followed should astonish us all.
“He yelled, ‘Don’t hit me,’ and left the cart to quickly walk to the front of the plane. I was confused, as were the passengers in front of me who witnessed the exchange. I thought nothing of it, except that this particular employee was incredibly rude and flat out wrong in his accusations that I had hit him.”
Davis did not see or speak to the flight attendant for the rest of the flight, he wrote. After the plane landed in Orange County, the pilot asked passengers to remain seated, and FBI and law enforcement officers went to Davis’ seat, handcuffed him and removed him from the plane — the scene “being captured on camera by multiple passengers,” he wrote.
Davis’ wife, Tamiko Davis, told “GMA” that she “thought it was a joke, because what else could it be?”
She asked her husband, “‘Terrell, are you kidding me? … Is this a joke?’ And he said quietly, ‘No, it’s not.’ And I look at my sons, who are sitting next to him, watching their father being handcuffed.”
After Davis was taken off the plane, “we were left to our own devices on a flight with everyone staring at us,” his wife told ABC.
Later, “During questioning, the officers correctly determined that this flight attendant was false in her allegations and the officers apologized profusely,” Davis wrote.
United Airlines has “removed the flight attendant from her position while we thoroughly investigate this matter,” the company said in an email to CNN Monday night.
“This is clearly not the type of travel experience we strive to provide, and we have reached out to Mr. Davis’ team to apologize,” the United Airlines email said.
But Davis told “GMA,” “They haven’t contacted me to apologize. They’ve contacted my attorney, but I haven’t heard anything directly from them. And that, to me, is a problem.”
“The traumatizing experience my two sons, my daughter and my wife had to watch as I was handcuffed and arrested — without due process or explanation — cannot be undone,” Davis wrote on Instagram.
The FBI office in Los Angeles acknowledged Monday that agents and law enforcement partners responded to a report of an incident involving a flight that landed Saturday at John Wayne Airport in Orange County. An individual who was being held for questioning “cooperated with law enforcement and was released to continue his travels,” the FBI office said.
The FBI does not provide details about incidents or names of people who may have been questioned unless charges are publicly filed, said Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI office.
What happened on the flight is “horrific and disturbing, to say the least,” Parker Stinar, managing partner of the Chicago-based law firm representing Davis, wrote in an email to CNN this week.
“We intend to thoroughly investigate the events that occurred and are actively contacting United Airlines about this,” Stinar wrote.
Davis is one of eight running backs to rush for more than 2,000 yards in an NFL season. He played seven seasons in the NFL, all with the Broncos, from 1995 through 2001. He helped the Broncos win two Super Bowls, in January 1998 and January 1999.
He was named MVP of that first title game, rushing for 157 yards and scoring three touchdowns in the Broncos’ 31-24 victory over the Green Bay Packers. The three-time Pro Bowler was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Raja Razek and Cindy Von Quednow contributed to this report.