Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez was spotted limping out of the hospital before being booked at an Indianapolis jail Sunday morning – after an alleged altercation with a truck driver ended with him being stabbed.
Video shows Sanchez, 38, with his arm in a sling, walking into the Marion County Jail to be fingerprinted and have his mugshot taken, Fox 59 reported.
When the former New York Jets player later left the jail, he told reporters he was “focused on my recovery” and thanked the first responders and his surgeon for saving his life, other footage showed.
A judge on Friday ordered that Sanchez must complete processing by the sheriff’s department before he could leave the state.
The quarterback turned Fox Sports analyst was in Indianapolis for the Colts-Raiders game on October 5 when he allegedly got into a brawl with a 69-year-old grease truck driver over his parking, according to court documents.
Sanchez was booked into jail on four charges. He was initially only slapped with three misdemeanors, but Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said he was adding a charge of battery resulting in serious bodily injury, which is a felony charge.
Mears suggested he added the extra charge because court documents indicated that Sanchez was allegedly the aggressor in the fight, according to Fox 59.
Meanwhile, the man Sanchez allegedly fought, 69-year-old Perry Tole, filed a lawsuit against Sanchez and his employer, Fox Corporation, in Indiana state court last week.
The lawsuit accuses Sanchez of instigating a fight with Tole late on the night of Saturday, October 4, that led to “severe permanent disfigurement, loss of function,” and other injuries and emotional distress. It also claims Sanchez smelled of alcohol when he confronted Tole, who first tried to fend him off with pepper spray.
Tole eventually stabbed Sanchez several times in the fight, later telling police he thought “this guy is trying to kill me.” A picture of a severely injured Tole has circulated online, showing him in a neck brace on a hospital bed, covered in blood with a deep gash on the side of his face.
Fox has since put Sanchez on leave. In his lawsuit, Tole claims that Fox Sports “knew or should have known about Defendant Sanchez’s unfitness as an employee, propensity for drinking and/or harmful conduct.”
Sanchez had a 10-year NFL career before retiring in 2019. He spent four seasons with the Jets and also appeared in games with Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington.
He also worked for ABC and ESPN for two years before joining Fox Sports as a game analyst in 2021.
Sanchez is scheduled to appear in court next on November 5 for a pretrial conference that will be held at 1 p.m.
