United Airlines was under fire this week after infamous Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis shared a disturbing encounter he had on a recent flight. The airline company has since apologized but… is that enough?
The hall of famer detailed the incident in a lengthy Instagram carousel post. He said Saturday he boarded a flight from Denver to Orange County, Calif. with his family. During the flight, he said he tapped a flight attendant on the shoulder to ask for a cup of ice. In response, the attendant accused Davis of hitting him.
By the time the flight landed, Davis said he was being escorted off the plane in handcuffs by FBI agents but eventually let go after questioning.
“This is clearly not the kind of travel experience we strive to provide, and we have reached out to Mr. Davis’s team to apologize. We have removed the flight attendant from duty while we closely review this matter,” the airline said in a statement to CNN.
Is a simple “sorry about that” enough, though? The NFL MVP said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he felt “stripped of his dignity” and “powerless” as a result of the incident. After a dazzling seven-year run in the NFL featuring two Super Bowl wins and a Hall of Fame title, the last example he wished to set for his children was him being taken away from them in handcuffs, he said. Despite their public statements to the press, Davis said he has yet to receive a direct apology from United Airlines.
“They have not reached out to me to apologize. They have reached out to my attorney, but I have not heard from them directly. And so that, to me, is a problem,” Davis said to ABC.
To the athlete, the experience was traumatizing for both him and his family, per his Instagram post. Though he encourages his sons to resort to the race card as a last resort if they’re being treated unfairly, he told CNN he believed this situation would not have occurred if he was a white man.