Donte Stallworth on Hot Air Ballon Accident: “My Butt Caught Fire”
By Josh Hill
Washington Redskins hopeful and veteran wide receiver Donte Stallworth hit the field with the Washington Redskins on Tuesday, but while he’s hoping to make the team and is “expected” to sign with the team this week, most of the talk focused on his infamous hot air balloon accident from earlier this offseason. Stallworth tried to make light of the situation, comparing it to old cartoons and exclaiming that his “butt caught fire” while talking to reporters.
“It felt exactly like the cartoons,” Stallworth said of the hot air balloon incident, via 103.5 WTOP. “When you see people getting electrocuted on cartoons, that’s exactly what it felt like.”
Stallworth was on the hot air balloon ride because he says it was on his girlfriends bucket list. But things took a terrifying turn for the worse when the balloon malfunctioned and Stallworth was nearly killed as a result. Both Stallworth and his girlfriend suffered serious burns from the incident, but that’s not stopping Stallworth from describing the incident very creatively.
“Literally, my butt caught on fire,” he said. “And she was on fire as well.”
Stallworth is hoping to make the Redskins roster this year and get his NFL career back on track. But while his personal life as been tumultuous over the past few years and has overshadowed his play on the field, Stallworth made time to point out the irony that while he’s never been carted off the field for an injury, all it took was a hot air balloon to nearly take him out of action for good.
“Ten years of playing professional football and I never been carted off the field,” he said, via Joseph White of the AP. “And I’ve never even been helped off the field. If I had a knee injury, I was able to get up and walk away on my own. And I go on a hot air balloon, something that seems very peaceful for two hours, and I’m getting airlifted to a hospital, life on the line.”