Police: Ex-Falcon Jamal Anderson was passed out behind wheel on I-85

Former Atlanta Falcon Jamal Anderson was passed out behind the wheel on the interstate during Friday’s afternoon rush hour, an incident report obtained Monday said.

Anderson, the former running back known for his “Dirty Bird” touchdown celebration, was arrested in Gwinnett Friday and charged with driving under the influence and improper stopping. Few details were available over the weekend regarding the arrest by the Georgia State Patrol, but the agency released its official report Monday morning.

The report’s narrative detailed a dangerous situation on Interstate 85.

According to the report, it was an off-duty Brookhaven police officer who first responded to the scene after being “flagged down by motorists” who spotted Anderson’s Cadillac Escalade stopped in a HOT lane near I-85’s merger with Ga. Highway 316. Gwinnett County fire had also received numerous reports of “a driver passed out behind the wheel of the vehicle.”

The Brookhaven officer reportedly got Anderson to move the car onto the left shoulder and asked the Georgia State Patrol to respond since he was out of his jurisdiction.

The trooper responded around 5:40 p.m. and noted that Anderson appeared “unsteady” on his feet and had a “heavy” odor of alcohol coming from his body. The former football player reportedly had watery, bloodshot eyes.

“I asked Anderson why he had stopped in the middle of the interstate, noting that it was extremely dangerous and asked him if he was trying to hurt himself,” the trooper wrote in the report. “He stated that he wasn’t trying to hurt himself and he didn’t really have a good explanation as to why he had parked in the middle of the interstate.”

Anderson allegedly admitted to drinking three beers, but his story flummoxed the responding trooper. Anderson first said he was “returning from a friend’s house after there for the night on the previous night” but, when told it was nearly 6 p.m., said he “had actually already gone home, returned to the friend’s house and was on his way back home a second time.”

The trooper then pointed out that Anderson, who lives in an apartment off McGinnis Ferry Road in Suwanee, was headed in the wrong direction.

According to Anderson’s own Twitter feed, he was scheduled for an appearance at the Gander Mountain outdoors store in Newnan from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday. Newnan is roughly an hour-long drive from the spot where Anderson was arrested.

“Anderson then made mention of just arriving to Atlanta on a flight from another location,” the report said. “Not able to make much sense of Anderson’s timeline of events or his story, I cut straight to the point and asked how much alcohol he had consumed before deciding to operate the vehicle.”

Anderson refused to submit to field sobriety and breath tests. He was taken to the Gwinnett County jail, where he was later released on $2,074 bond.

Anderson played for the Falcons from 1994 to 2001, leading the team’s improbable Super Bowl run in 1998. He was arrested on DUI charges in DeKalb County in 2012, though the charge was ultimately reduced to reckless driving.