G-League players kicked off Christmas Eve flight for 'stealing' blankets that had been given to them
This is awful.
Flying on planes is already an awful experience — especially around the holidays when everything is busy. For Memphis Hustle G-League players Marquis Teague and Trahson Burrell, things got even worse.
The two were boarding an American Airlines flight heading to Sioux Falls from Dallas on Sunday during Christmas Eve for a Christmas Day game on Monday when they were eventually accused of stealing from first-class passengers and booted off the plane, according to a report from Marc Spears.
The two players were given blankets by first-class passengers, according to Spears’ report, but were accused of stealing them by a flight attendant. Eventually, the accusation led to an argument..
The flight attendant said he wouldn’t fly unless Teague and Burrell were off the plane after Burrell offered some threatening words. To keep the flight from being delayed, Teague and Burrell were asked to get off the plane. American Airlines ended up putting Teague, Burrell and a Hustle assistant coach on a later flight to Sioux Falls (first class), but they missed a team holiday dinner.
This is awful for so many reasons.
A first-class blanket is hardly a thing for someone to be booted off of a plane over, whether they took them or not. Since they were given these blankets by a first-class passenger, this shouldn’t have been an issue. And, again, they’re just blankets — the airline should have plenty of them.
Teague and Burrell missing their team dinner over a situation that should never have been an issue is an awful thing. Hustle head coach Glynn Cyprien took to Twitter to vent his frustration.
American Airlines Needs Sensitivity Training to Attendants on flights dealing with Humans & Blankets! ✈️ ♂️
— Glynn Cyprien (@CoachCyprien) December 24, 2017
The team’s assistant coach Darnell Lazare followed up.
It’s 2017 and a Flight attendant for @AmericanAir sees 2 young black athletes with blankets from first class, his 1st comment is “did you steal them” how about you teach people to get the facts first before jumping to conclusions. #beingblackinamerican
— Darnell Lazare (@Dhouse35) December 24, 2017
This was a situation that should never have happened, but it happens all too often to black and brown Americans throughout this country. Teague and Burrell experienced it first hand on Sunday and, the sad part is, it probably wasn’t the first time they’d been profiled.
The airline eventually apologized, but the damage was already done. The only thing it can do now is make serious efforts to be better in the future.