Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones said he was taken to a mental-health facility and held against his will, adding team officials did nothing to help him.
Jones, a two-time All-Pro, has yet to play for the Raiders this season. He was placed on the non-football illness list amid an alleged clash with coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler.
The 33-year-old posted handwritten notes on Twitter Monday night detailing how he wound up at Seven Hills Behavioral Health Hospital in Henderson, Nev., and said he was back home on Monday.
Jones said members of the Las Vegas Fire Department took him to the facility last week on the order of police, who said “people were concerned about me because of my posts online.”
He alleges he was injected with an unknown substance while in the ambulance that transported him and that hospital staff tried to inject him with additional medications. He further alleged he did not have access to his cell phone or a way to communicate with others.
“I hadn’t done anything wrong,” Jones, 33, wrote.
He said Ziegler was of no assistance during his alleged plight.
“I called Raiders GM 6 to 7 times asking for help and I wondered if he had put me in here, but he never answered,” Jones wrote. “I even left him voicemails.”
He said he was denied a bed one night and that his brothers “had to bring me decent meals to eat” and that his father came to read Bible verses.
“All I know is whoever put me in here had bad intentions,” he said. “I’m (too) strong of a person to be mentally broken.”
Neither representatives from the Raiders or Seven Hills have commented.
The club put Jones on the non-injury football list last Wednesday, calling it a personal matter. The move came two weeks after Jones’ rants on social media, since deleted, that said he didn’t “wanna play for the Raiders if that’s my HC or GM.” He said he was prevented from going to the team facility.
“It’s a shame that I am a top athlete with 112 sacks in the NFL and I have to go to a local gym to work out during the season for no apparent reason this is wild to me Josh and you know it you need to do what’s right,” Jones also posted, part of an apparent text string with McDaniels.
Two days later, Sept. 7, Jones posted to Instagram that the team sent a crisis team representative to his house and she said the player was “in danger.” Those posts, too, have since been deleted.
Jones signed a three-year, $51 million deal with Las Vegas as a free agent in March 2022. He restructured his contract in April to lower his base salary to $1.165 million this season by converting some of the money due to a bonus.
Jones recorded 38 tackles, 4.5 sacks and three fumble recoveries in 15 games (all starts) last season, his first with the Raiders. His signature moment with Las Vegas came in Week 15 when he grabbed a New England Patriots lateral in the closing seconds and returned it 48 yards for a touchdown to give the Raiders an unlikely 30-24 victory.
A four-time Pro Bowl selection, Jones has 511 tackles, 112 sacks and 13 fumble recoveries — including two returned for touchdowns — in 154 career games (151 starts) with the Patriots (2012-15), Arizona Cardinals (2016-21) and Raiders.
Jones was a first-round draft pick (21st overall) by the Patriots in 2012 out of Syracuse.