Ex-NFL Player Grounds Flight by Allegedly Peeing on Passenger

A Sunday morning Delta Airlines flight from Boston to the Emerald Isle was forced to return to the U.S. after a 40-year-old former NFL player allegedly urinated on another passenger.

Ex-offensive lineman Gosder Cherilus, who played nine seasons in the NFL for the Lions, Colts and Bucs following a standout career at Boston College, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and disturbing a flight crew after Massachusetts state troopers boarded the plane following its return to Logan International Airport.

The troopers told Cherilus to get off the flight, but he “became irate and uncooperative” before eventually being escorted off the plane and taken into custody. Likely extremely pissed off about the incident, the other passengers on the plane were able to make it to Dublin on flights departing later in the day.

According to the police report, Cherilus appeared intoxicated before the flight took off and “emptied his entire bladder for approximately 20 seconds” on an elderly woman about an hour into the flight.

Arraigned on Monday morning in East Boston District Court, Cherilus was released on a $2,500 bond. Cherilus was ordered to stay alcohol and drug-free and also needs to stay away from the alleged victim and Logan Airport except for legitimate travel.

Hardly a household name nationally during his playing career, Cherilus is a business partner of former Lions teammate Calvin Johnson, who was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021.

Along with former Lion Rob Sims, Johnson and Cherilus opened Primitiv Boston, a wellness-focused cannabis dispensary, on High Street in Boston’s Waterfront District in 2023.

“Primitiv Boston will be a very welcoming retail provisioning center, as we are taking a customer-service first approach to how we interact with our guests, believing this is a very personalized industry,” Cherilus said in ’23. “We want to take the time to get to know our guests and help them find the right type of medicine they are looking for depending on their specific needs, as this is truly a wellness brand.”

While Cherilus’s alleged behavior on Sunday doesn’t exactly sound like the actions of a man who is getting the medicine he needs, perhaps there is more to the story (an argument over the armrest?) or he was just having a really, really bad day.

“Delta has zero tolerance for unlawful behavior and will cooperate with law enforcement to that end,” the airline said in a statement. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travel.”

Cherilus is due back in court October 11, according to CBS.