CNN
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Terrell Davis and his family were looking forward to a California vacation when the NFL Hall of Famer was handcuffed and removed from a United Airlines plane — for no apparent reason.
“I was stripped of my dignity. I was helpless. I couldn’t do anything,” the two-time Super Bowl champion told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday.
The incident happened Saturday at the end of a flight from Denver to Orange County, California. Davis, 51, was traveling with his wife, two sons and daughter when one of the sons asked for a glass of ice during beverage service, Davis wrote on Instagram. A flight attendant “did not hear or ignored his request and continued past our row,” the post read.
“I calmly reached behind me and lightly tapped (the attendant’s) arm to get his attention so he would again ask for a cup of ice cream for my son,” Davis wrote.
“He yelled, ‘Don’t hit me,’ and left the cart and ran toward 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, other than that this particular employee was incredibly rude and was clearly wrong to accuse me of hitting him.”
Davis said he did not see or interact with the flight attendant for the remainder of the flight. After the plane landed in Orange County, the pilot asked passengers to remain seated, and FBI agents and law enforcement officers went to Davis’ seat, handcuffed him and removed him from the plane — the scene “recorded by multiple passengers,” he wrote.
“My sons were there. My daughter was there. My wife is there,” he told CNN. “I wonder what’s going on. They didn’t ask me any questions. I didn’t even have a chance to explain it to them.”
Davis’ wife, Tamiko Davis, said she knew her husband couldn’t even think about why he was being handcuffed and taken away.
“Terrell knows better. Unfortunately, historically, in these situations, as a black man, you can’t ask questions,” she told CNN. “Thank God my husband has the wherewithal, the class, the understanding to know that at that point, all he could do was sit there, comply and be humiliated in front of his sons and the 200…however many people were on that plane. They didn’t give him any other options.”
The woman and children were left “to fend for themselves”
Davis said he strives to be a positive role model for his children and teach them to do the right thing, which makes the sight of him being led away in handcuffs even more heartbreaking.
“We did the right thing. We did nothing. And yet here I am, handcuffed, paraded off a plane and treated like a detainee,” Davis said.
After Davis was taken off the plane, “we were left to fend for ourselves on a flight with everyone watching us,” his wife told ABC’s “Good Morning America” earlier Wednesday.
Later, “During the interrogation, the officers correctly determined that this flight attendant had made inaccurate accusations and the officers apologized profusely,” Davis wrote.
United Airlines has “removed the flight attendant from her duties while we carefully review this matter,” the company said in an email to CNN Monday evening.
“This is clearly not the kind of travel experience we strive to provide, and we have reached out to Mr. Davis’ team to apologize,” United Airlines’ email read.
Davis is still waiting for a direct apology from United Airlines, he told “GMA” Wednesday morning.
“They haven’t contacted me to apologize,” he told ABC. “They’ve contacted my lawyer, but I haven’t heard from them directly. And so that’s, to me, a problem.”
CNN has reached out to United Airlines for comment following Davis’ comments Wednesday. “We have nothing new to share,” United’s media relations department said.
“We are subject to different standards”
The Davises said they don’t know exactly what race the flight attendant was. But they said black men are often treated differently and they are teaching their sons to be wary of that cruel reality.
“The traumatic experience of my two sons, my daughter and my wife seeing me handcuffed – without due process or any explanation – is irreparable,” Davis wrote on Instagram.
“I felt like this wouldn’t have happened if I was a white person,” Davis told CNN. “That’s what I felt. Whether that’s true or not is another question.”
The FBI’s Los Angeles field office 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. A person who was detained for questioning “cooperated with law enforcement and was released to continue his travel,” the FBI office said.
The FBI is not providing details about the incidents or the names of people who may have been questioned unless charges are publicly filed, FBI field office spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
What happened on the flight “is appalling and disturbing, to say the least,” Parker Stinar, managing partner of the Chicago-based law firm representing Davis, told CNN this week.
“We plan to thoroughly investigate the events that took place and are actively reaching out to United Airlines regarding this matter,” Stinar wrote.
Today, instead of vacationing with his children, Davis is using his influence to raise awareness about abuse and hopes to “create change,” he told “GMA.”
As one of only eight running backs to rush for more than 2,000 yards in an NFL season, Davis played seven seasons in the NFL – all with the Broncos – from 1995 to 2001, and helped the Broncos win two Super Bowls in January 1998 and January 1999.
He was named the MVP of that first title game, rushing for 157 yards and 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.
But despite his fame, Davis said he and other black men were often treated differently.
He wants his sons to keep an open mind if they feel they are being perceived differently – “I always try to go through a list of things that could be, and I always try to use race as the last possible sort of thing,” Davis told CNN.
“But I always tell them: What applies to everyone else does not apply to you,” he said. “We always try to teach them that there are consequences, but we’re held to a different standard.”
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Raja Razek, Cindy Von Quednow and Kelly McCleary contributed to this report.