Friday morning's bizarre arrest at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport was not the first time in the past 10 months that Cleveland Browns wide receiver Davone Bess was detained by police for unstable, violent behavior.
Bess also was hospitalized against his will on March 11, 2013, according to the incident report obtained by The Miami Herald. Deputies found him restrained by several men at his Cooper City, Fla., home. Bess reportedly was screaming "Hide the guns," "Where is my weed" and "I want to get in the end zone; throw me the football."
Per The Miami Herald, Bess' mother, Chinell Carpenter, flew in from California earlier that day after receiving a phone call outlining her son's problems. She said Bess had no prior psychiatric history but hadn't slept in three days and was going through serious personal issues.
Several people close to Bess told Northeast Ohio Media Group they had become "increasingly alarmed about his erratic behavior," with another league source saying the Browns were worried about "his mental well-being."
Bess was at the Fort Lauderdale Airport at the time of his Friday morning arrest because he was attempting to reunite with his family and seek help, per Northeast Ohio Media Group.
The wide receiver led the NFL with 13 drops in the worst season of his six-year career. The Northeast Ohio Media Group report said Bess grew depressed and "mentally checked out" before he was placed on the non-football injury list by the Browns in late December.
Bess previously was held up as a successful redemption story, hailing from a rough Oakland neighborhood where he once witnessed the murder of his uncle.
He was the Dolphins' 2011 nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for his work with underprivileged children and at-risk families in the Bess Route Foundation.
Bess' most recent arrest comes less than a year after a mentally and emotionally unstable Titus Young was released by the Detroit Lions and arrested twice in 15 hours.
We hope Bess gets his life turned around before it spirals as far out of control as Young's did last offseason.
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