Looks like somebody fucked around with Willie McGinest, and just as quickly, they found out.
McGinest, the 51 year-old retired NFL linebacker whose physique looks like he could still play Monday Night Football this evening, turned himself in to police in his native Los Angeles early this morning, posting $30,000 bond on an assault charge before being release, USA Today reported.
The arrest was in connection with an incident that happened in West Hollywood about 10 days ago, but no other details were given. Assuming—and it’s a big assumption given the vague repoting at this point, that McGinest wasn’t the aggressor, it’s hard to imagine who in their right mind would roll on this guy and expect it to end well.
McGinest was drafted in 1994 and played 12 seasons for the New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns, all the the linebacker spot. For those unfamiliar with the 11 positions on a football defense, that tends to be where you find guys with the athleticism of Usain Bolt, the build of Dwayne Johnson and the mentality of any upper-echelon MMA fighter; put another way he’s a guy who made his living being really big, really fast and loving nothing more than to run into other humans at full speed. Over and over and over again. He wasn’t bad at it, either; McGinest won three Super Bowls with the Patriots and was a starter at his position. HIs playing weight was six-foot-five and 270 pounds.
Of course, I could be wrong here. Maybe whoever the other parties involved were had no chance but to defend themselves against the former human wrecking ball. Maybe this whole thing was a big misunderstanding that will wind up being settled outside of a courtroom. There’s tons of possibilities here, and all of them start with the presumption of McGinest’s innocence.
Still, I hope whoever decided to get into anything resembling fisticuffs with this guy had a really, really good reason, an even better insurance policy and at least a little bit of self-defense training under their belt.