60¢ LATE SPORTS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2003 ALONZO SPELLMAN, BIPOLAR DISORDER AND THE FLIGHTFLIGHT FROMFROM HELLHELLPAGES 110-106 JONATHAN DANIEL/AllSport LOTTA SNOW IN SIXERS’ WIN Watch DAILY NEWS LIVE Sponsored by On Comcast SportsNet Weekdays, 5-6:30 p.m. PAGE 104 FLIGHT FROMHELL HEY were on their way back to Philadel- T phia from a vacation in Michigan last July. Karen Weaver, husband Steve and their two small sons had just settled into their THE BRUTAL seats aboard their Delta connection in Cincinnati when Karen became aware of a small scraping sound. She wondered to her- self: “What could that possibly be?” The noise appeared to be coming from behind TRIP DOWN her, so she positioned herself in such a A tale about Alonzo Spellman, way that allowed her to see between the seatbacks. It was then that she caught a his illness, and a terrifying flight narrow glimpse of him: this very large that landed him in jail man in the act of stroking his beard with a comb — up one side, then the other, again By MARK KRAM and again and again. And he was talking to himself in a low yet agitated voice, switching from subject to subject in what Weaver would later remember as “a stream of gibberish.” The young woman arched an eyebrow. The jet sat on the runway for close to an hour, during which the passenger only grew louder and began straying off on scary tangents — including Osama bin Laden and the possibility that a bomb had been planted on board. Weaver says now that she should have alerted a flight attendant at this point, that perhaps he could have been removed while the plane was still on the ground. But before she knew it they were up in the air, so she focused her at- tention on her 31⁄2-year-old son, engaging him in heightened con- versation in an effort to drown out the chatter behind them. When the passenger began spew- ing not just odd nonsense but vul- ..................... See SPELLMAN Page 108 SOURCES Material for this story was drawn from a variety of sources, including interviews with the chief participants, Steve and Karen Weaver, and others; court testimony and related legal documents; and prior accounts PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press by newspapers and wire services. Alonzo Spellman appears Through his attorney, Alonzo in Oakland County Spellman declined to be (Mich.) court in Novem- interviewed for this article. ber 2001, less than a Additionally, numerous phone month after the Lions messages left for his mother, released him. Dorothy, and his sister, Lorraine, were not returned. PAGE 110 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2003 ALONZO’S NUMBERS FLIGHT FROMHELL Player — Dimitrius Underwood 1— who used Spellman as an SPELLMAN gional High School in Mount Hol- adviser while a member of the Continued from Page 110 ly, N.J., to open up vistas and Cowboys in 2000; both have point the way for him. School- conditions diagnosed as bipolar. ....................... work had not come easy for Spell- Team MVP after recording nine gar invective, Weaver finally man, yet he and Mackara worked tackles for loss, three sacks, 1 summoned a flight attendant, hard on it, even as Spellman be- three passes defensed and four fumbles during his junior season who approached the man and po- came a target of fierce razzing by with Ohio State. litely asked him to behave. opposing fans. Whenever he Career pro interception, in Weaver would later remember stepped to the foul line on the bas- 1 1994, for 31 yards. he assaulted her with a “verbal ketball court, the chant would Year, $3.06 million contract rampage.” swell and echo through the gym- 4 Spellman signed with the He just would not stop. nasium: “SAT! SAT! SAT!” So it Bears in 1992. And Weaver became increas- pleased Mackara deeply to see Sacks as a member of the ingly annoyed. Her hands trem- how far Spellman had come as 5 Cowboys in 1999. bled with anger. they sat across from each other Tackles in Oct. 10, 1999, loss She then stood up at her seat, at dinner that evening, how the 5 to Eagles. whirled around and looked the variety of Letters a day he was getting passenger hard in the face. “Ex- hardships he 5 from colleges while a junior at cuse me,” she said evenly. “Would had faced as a Rancocas Valley High School in you mind not using such profani- “He just had youth had Mount Holly, N.J. He said then: ty? I am traveling with two young to get it out been galva- “Our athletic director [Carmen children, and this is really out of nized into an to show me . Cella] told me the other day that hand. Could you please try?” accomplished I was going to have to get my Seated behind Weaver in Row he was no adult. Oddly, own mailbox.” 21 on Delta Flight 2038 that longer the what Sacks in his senior season at evening was Alonzo Spellman, Mackara re- pupil I once 14 Rancocas Valley. the former NFL defensive line- members Quarterback pressures in man then in the unrelenting grip knew but a years later is 22 1999, which led the Cow- of bipolar disorder. He was chap- the comput- boys. responsible eroned in this wildly manic state erized ad- adult.” Children who were aided by by his mother and sister, who had dress book 23 the Spellman Foundation, which was designed to provide picked him up in Las Vegas with RAJ MACKARA Spellman had the intention of taking him to a with him. tutors, counseling and after- Spellman’s high school enrichment programs for psychiatric hospital back home in school mentor “It looked this group of fifth-graders. If South Jersey. The 6-4, 330-pound so small in his they kept their grades up, the Spellman had been in a long free big hands, but foundation promised a full col- fall since his condition was diag- he just had to lege scholarship. Four years lat- nosed in 1998, highlighted by al- get it out to er, in 1999, it had to be dissolved cohol and illegal drug use, erratic show me how organized he had when he was unable to fund it. sprees that led to altercations become — how he was no longer Wins in 27 games by Ranco- with police and the dissolution of the pupil I once knew but a re- 24 cas Valley’s basketball team his once-promising football ca- sponsible adult,” Mackara says. in 1988-89, aided by Spellman, reer. Because Spellman would “He was still young and learning, who averaged 15.4 points and 14.4 rebounds. not accept the very troubling fact but he wanted to show me that he that he had a potentially deadly had coped and adapted. And I re- Lifetime sacks as a pro, in- illness and needed to stay on a member being so happy for him, 43 cluding a career-high 81⁄2 for the Bears in 1995. closely monitored program of because he and I had been very Size of his suit as a junior in medication, a seasoned flight close.” 45 high school. crew and 138 passengers found The former coach pauses. “We themselves in an utterly terrify- File photo talked less and less after that,” he Tackles for Ohio State as a A two-sport star at Rancocas Valley Regional High School, 52 sophomore in 1990, earning ing drama that U.S. District Alonzo Spellman led the football team in 1987 to the South adds. “You know how it goes. The All-Big Ten honors and designa- Court Judge Stewart Dalzall ulti- Jersey Group 3 football title, and the basketball team in 1989 to young move on. But I can still see tion by The Sporting News as mately called “a nightmare.” its first league title in 25 years. him sitting there at dinner as if to the second-best defensive end Imagine yourself in their place say, ‘I have grown up. And I am in the country. for just a second: Here you are, doing OK.’ ” Tackles in 1996, his career strapped in your seat in that slips into the lavatory and stays frozen in their seats. How Spellman became some- 78 high, as a defensive end for crammed cabin, and this big guy there with the door locked. Sud- Freund would later say, “I just thing less than OK is a cautionary the Bears. — or as one passenger later de- denly, you hear this agitated man wanted to see what had set him tale of just how destructive un- Career regular-season scribed him as “this solid brick say that he is going to tear the off, if it had been something Delta treated bipolar disorder can be. 83 games, in nine seasons. wall” — is yelling at this young emergency door off, so you begin had done. Like losing his bags.” Wild instability set in under the Tackles in his senior season woman, who is so upset by his to think to yourself: What can I guise of the usual ups and downs 104 at Rancocas Valley. lewd comments that she eventu- do to stop him? The captain, Early accolades as the years passed, and plagued His listed playing weight as ally dissolves into tears. Her hus- Robert D. Freund, radios in and him both on and off the field. He 292 a pro. band is sitting across from her, asks for priority handling. The It was sometime during his was All-America at Rancocas, The Christmas season he but at just 5-8 and 150, he realizes plane lands and you see him walk first few years with the Chicago All-Big Ten at Ohio State and a 1999 participated in the Cow- he has no chance whatsoever of back and approach the passen- Bears that Alonzo Spellman No.