The day that now former Chicago Bears player Jeremiah Ratliff showed up “in no condition to practice” and was subsequently cut after a contentious argument could have gotten worse.
During the heat of the incident, the player allegedly said that he was so angry he felt like “killing everybody” after he was forcibly removed from the team’s practice facilities.
According to a new report in the Chicago Tribune, after he was taken home by team representatives and then found out he was cut from the team over the incident, Ratliff returned to Halas Hall and said “he felt like killing everybody in the building.”
After the second incident, John Tarpey, Bears director of safety and security, called the Lake Forest police department’s non-emergency line to report Ratliff’s threats.
“We’d like to have an officer come over,” Tarpey can be heard saying on the recording obtained by the Tribune. “We had an issue with a player. He left pretty upset, came back and then left again upset. We’re a little concerned that he may come back again. So we’d like to have an officer over here, talk to him about it and see what we can do here.”
Tarpey also noted that Ratliff yelled out other threats. During his return visit, Tarpey said that Ratliff yelled out “I am the devil” and said he “wished staff member’s children would die.”
The Bears did not want to comment further on the incident after the paper reported it on Friday. Ratliff remains a free agent after ten-plus seasons in the league that included four Pro Bowl appearances.
While he didn’t want to discuss the incidents too much, Bears coach John Fox did note that he wasn’t worried about it all going forward. “But if you’re asking me if I’m nervous, I’m not,” Fox said of Ratliff’s threats.
As Yahoo Sports notes, this isn’t the first time that Jeremiah Ratliff revealed anger management issues.
Ratliff also had problems when he was with the Dallas Cowboys and in 2012, Ratliff and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had a huge argument in the locker room that became so animated that the two had to be physically separated.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.