Former NFL Player, 31, Dies in Custody in Alabama

The parents of former NFL player Glenn Foster Jr. say he had bipolar disorder and should have received medical treatment after his arrest. Instead, the 31-year-old died Monday, three days after he was arrested following a high-speed chase in Alabama. Reform Police Chief Richard Black says officers chased Foster Friday night after they saw him going 90mph in a 45mph zone, NOLA.com reports. He crashed into a business and was taken to the county jail after officers deployed a spike strip. Black says he spoke to Foster's parents on Saturday and arrangements were made to take the man to a Birmingham hospital for evaluation—but while he was waiting with Foster's family at the jail to collect him on Sunday, they were told he had been in an altercation and would remain in the custody of the sheriff's office.

Father Glenn Foster Sr. says he was told that his son had been in an altercation with another inmate and two guards, but he wasn't allowed to visit him due to COVID restrictions. Jail records in Pickens County show that after bail was paid on Foster's chase-related charges Sunday, he was re-booked two minutes later on charges including assault, CNN reports. On Monday, after his condition apparently worsened, arrangements were made to take Foster to a hospital 30 minutes away instead of the Birmingham facility—but he was pronounced dead after he arrived there in a police cruiser. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency says it is investigating and no cause of death has been determined.

Foster played for the New Orleans Saints in 2013 and 2014. After retiring, he remained in Louisiana, where he worked as a contractor and real estate agent. His father says he was on his way to Atlanta on business when he was arrested. He says Foster had largely kept his bipolar disorder under control but had a manic episode in college and another more recently. "My son, instead of being dead in a morgue, should have been in a mental facility where they could have treated his mental illness," Foster Sr. says, per the Washington Post. "Now the fruit has fallen from the tree. Once it’s on the ground you can’t put it back. That’s what they’ve done. They snatched the life of my son." (More Alabama stories.)