The New England Revolution sit at 2-0 in SuperLiga action after a pair of wins this week, and the Revs boast the best record in MLS, but it was their act of heroism on a plane that might be their best accomplishment yet.
Two Revolution players and a team staff member Three Revolution staff members helped subdue an unruly passenger on their flight from Boston to Los Angeles earlier today. And who said that having MLS teams fly commercial was a bad thing?
Revs general manager Craig Tornberg, assistant coach Gwynne Williams and VP of player personnel Mike Burns subdued the passenger after he stripped naked and put his clothes back on before attempting to open an emergency door on the plane.
The Revs staff members restrained the man before he was placed in handcuffs by flight attendents.
(Insert your "Tornberg and Burns know all about restraining people, just ask Taylor Twellman and Shalrie Joseph" jokes here.)
There is no truth to the rumor that the unruly passenger was a Real Salt Lake fan yelling at Steve Nicol for all the All-Star Game snubs.
The Revs face Chivas USA in SuperLiga on Sunday in Fullerton, California.
Share your thoughts on this crazy story below.
Actually, commercial airline emergency exits are physically impossible to be pulled opened by a human when in the air. They’re designed to pull inward first to open (then you turn sideways and toss out–read the booklet sometime, it’s worth knowing how).
Since cabin’s air pressure is much higher inside than low pressure in sky outside, in flight the door gets pushed to seal extremely firmly against the frame of the plane. On the ground (when normal people might need to exit), no problem to pull the door inward off the seals, but in the sky, it’s beyond human strength.
Not that it was a bad idea to restrain an erratic person who certainly could have opened the exit once landed (when air pressure was even again on both sides)and hurt himself and others, or have caused other dangers on board.
You know, despite all the jokes here (including my own about Lalas), let’s not forget that Burns & Co. saved lives! Do you know what would have happened if the passenger door would have been opened in midflight? The rapid change in cabin pressure likely would have cause the airplane to veer off course radically, and definitely would have sucked anything not nailed down — including a lot of passengers not wearing their seat belts — out the door and to their destruction. Burns, Williams and Tornberg are heroes and deserve recognition as such.
Apparently the streaker that New England’s staff hired to create a diversion and waste time at Sunday’s Superliga match blew his cover when Taylor Twellman requested a lap dance.
Needless to say, Nicol has already filed a discovery claim on the Crazy Naked Guy, but to Nicol’s chagrin, it’s too late to replace Beckham with CNG for the All-Star game. Go Revs!
The revolution stopped a revolt?…irony
I live in OKC and have some inside info that wasn’t reported. Apparently in order to calm this lunatic down, Matt Reis without hesitation also stripped naked and was the first person to get on top of this guy. He is truly a hero to all Fire fans worldwide.
so according to lenny, it was staff not the players.Figures, everyone knows N.E. players are big chokes in big time moments.
Heard the players thought the guy was playoff Blanco so they all hid in the bathroom.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080718-1710-flightdiverted.html
Oklahoma!
Sue, Mike Burns. Save an airline full of passengers. Big deal. Ask you to cover the GODDAMNNEARPOST in France, and noooooooooo, can’t do it, can you?
It turns out the man was Jim Rome. When questioned by authorities, Rome said he was so unnerved by being confined in an aircraft with a professional soccer team that he freaked out, stripped and tried to escape the plain by the only means necessary. In the struggle that followed his attempt to open the emergency exit, Rome was heard shouting at Mike Burns,…”you couldn’t hug a goal post in France, what makes you think you can restrain me?”
heroism
I think you spoke too soon, sidenetting.
AJ you win.
On a serious note, anyone who acts like an a-hole on a plane should have the living s**t kicked out of him/her repeatedly by every other passenger…twice. Basically the last place I wanna see any kind of drama.
Timely defense by the Revolution? Clearly wasn’t the MLS Cup Final.
@KungFuSoccer
Post of the year. Sorry, lenny, it’s too easy now.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080718-1710-flightdiverted.html
A more detail account about Tornberg, Burns, and some other staff guy being the ones involved.
Nice to hear Mike Burns stopped something for once.
Gee, I didn’t know Alexi Lalas was so desperate to get out of the Galaxy that NE was willing to sign him as a guest player for the SuperLiga. I guess he didn’t like his contract and was trying to “bail out” of the deal.
I heard the unruly passenger was Albright trying to get off the plane and return to LA to replace Xavier… Could be a rumor…
What a horrible catastrophe it would have been if Xavier and the galaxy backline were on that plane.
The story I heard was it was Twellman who was trying to hijack the plane so he could play in England… i’m just sayin
The ESPN story said it was three staff members(not players) who subdued him
That…….is ridiculous. Good for them, glad everyone was ok.
Word is Larentowicz went studs-up on the naked crazy dude, flinging him between two stewardesses directly to a breaking Twellman who backheeled the guy in the grapes as Ralston came off the flank to dutch oven his face for the finisher. Crude, I know, but heroism is seldom pretty.