Report: Ex-Viking Everson Griffen's 'unruly' behavior sends MSP-bound flight back to Chicago

Paul Walsh, Star Tribune on Jul 16, 2025

Published in Football

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MINNEAPOLIS — Former Vikings defensive lineman Everson Griffen apparently extended his string of troubling incidents, this time for being unruly on a flight Wednesday bound for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The 37-year-old former standout defensive lineman, who lives in the Twin Cities, was removed from the Delta airliner soon after takeoff from Chicago after creating an unspecified scene, according to TMZ Sports.

Delta spokesperson Berj Alexanian told the Minnesota Star Tribune that pilots went back to O’Hare International Airport “to have an unruly passenger removed.”

“Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior and will always work with law enforcement to that end,” Alexanian added. “We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travel as safety and security comes before everything else at Delta.”

While there was no word as of early Wednesday evening about whether Griffen was arrested, Alexanian said, “I recommend reaching out to the Chicago O’Hare Police Department.

Messages were left with Griffen, the O’Hare police and the FBI for more information about the incident. An attorney who has represented Griffen for past criminal matters had no comment.

In November, Griffen was sentenced to a 60-day term for driving while drunk in May on a Minneapolis interstate. Judge Gina Brandt set aside a year in the workhouse for Griffen and put him on supervisory probation for four years.

In July 2023, he was stopped in Chanhassen and accused of driving 60 mph in a 40 mph zone. His blood-alcohol content was 0.09%. Griffen pleaded guilty to a reduced careless driving charge in February 2024 and was placed on a year’s probation.

In the months following that allegation, Griffen crashed his car into a fence and gazebo in Mound on Oct. 28, 2023. He was cited and convicted of failure to drive with due care, a petty misdemeanor. On Dec. 7, 2023, in Shakopee, police stopped Griffen for driving 55 mph in a 30 mph zone. He was convicted of a petty misdemeanor in that case as well.

In December 2021, following multiple troubling incidents, Griffen announced on social media that he had been living with bipolar disorder.

Griffen called 911 shortly after 3 a.m. from his Minnetrista home on Nov. 24, 2021, saying someone was with him, and he needed help. He also told the dispatcher he fired one round from a gun, but no one was wounded, police said. They added no intruder was found.

The same day, Griffen had posted, then deleted, a video on Instagram saying people were trying to kill him as he held a gun in his hand. He was alone inside the house, with police outside, until he emerged and agreed to be taken for treatment.

He also spent four weeks undergoing mental health treatment in 2018 after two incidents that September — one at the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, the other at his home — that prompted police involvement. He later revealed he lived in a sober house for the remainder of the 2018 season.

Griffen returned to the Vikings in 2019 and played in 17 of the Vikings’ 18 regular-season and postseason games. He spent 2020 with Dallas and Detroit before the Vikings brought him back for the 2021 season in a one-year deal that capped his career.

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