Caregivers Protect Troubled Lineman

Alonzo Spellman would sack a quarterback and begin a little dance, a celebratory strut in which he’d sometimes cup his hand to his helmet and listen for the cheers.

That’s one image of the 6-foot-4, 290-pound defensive end for the Chicago Bears.

Earlier this week, there was another more disturbing one - an obviously troubled young man without shirt or shoes walking out of a hospital and down a highway in sub-freezing temperatures.

He was looking for a ride, but to where?

On Monday, he’d become angry and refused to come out of his publicist’s suburban home, prompting the appearance of a police tactical unit.

Eight hours later, he ended the standoff after meeting and praying with former Bears linebacker and soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee Mike Singletary. Spellman then headed off to a hospital.

“Right now, the most important thing is to get Alonzo to being Alonzo. Forget about Alonzo the football player right now,” Singletary said.

Police in suburban Lake County said Spellman’s family would transfer him from Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington - the facility he tried to leave - to a different hospital, but would not say where.

The Chicago Tribune, citing sources, reported that Spellman had been taken under heavy sedation to the psychiatric unit at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center, regarded as one of Chicago’s best.

“We have no patient here by the name of Alonzo Spellman,” hospital spokeswoman Carol Scherf said.

Spellman’s California-based agent, Leigh Steinberg, did not return phone calls Wednesday.

“Obviously, he’s been under a lot of stress,” Singletary said Tuesday. “When you’re bothered and in a situation like this, you have to be surrounded by people who support you, and I’m not sure he is.

“This can happen to anybody, given the right circumstances. When we hit the wall, we need somebody.”

The Bears are trying to say as little as possible.

“We are trying to help in several different and important ways,” club president Michael McCaskey said in a statement Tuesday night. “The sensitive nature of the situation requires that we treat the matter with confidentiality.”