https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ex-nfl-star-sexually-abused-191513614.html
Al Chesley was 13 when he says a neighborhood police officer began to sexually assault him.
Leaving Neverland[/a]. After the documentary, Chesley joined other survivors for an Oprah Winfrey special, After Neverland, which explored child sexual assault allegations against pop icon Michael Jackson with accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck and the documentary’s director, Dan Reed.
For Chesley, now 61, it was a truth he hid for more than 30 years, during which he achieved fame as linebacker for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles who played in the 1981 Super Bowl.
Yet all the while he remained haunted. “It stunts your ability to grow, because you spend so much time with the thought of what happened, and it always plays back in your mind,” he says.
He initially knew the policeman only as “Officer Friendly,” a visible presence in Chesley’s Washington, D.C. neighborhood at high school sporting events and other activities.
Addressing the documented ritual by which abusers find and target potentially vulnerable youth, Chesley recalls, “the ‘grooming’ process for me was just [the officer] being there and being nice and interested in me, and telling me I’m special.”
Al Chesley was 13 when he says a neighborhood police officer began to sexually assault him.
Leaving Neverland[/a]. After the documentary, Chesley joined other survivors for an Oprah Winfrey special, After Neverland, which explored child sexual assault allegations against pop icon Michael Jackson with accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck and the documentary’s director, Dan Reed.
For Chesley, now 61, it was a truth he hid for more than 30 years, during which he achieved fame as linebacker for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles who played in the 1981 Super Bowl.
Yet all the while he remained haunted. “It stunts your ability to grow, because you spend so much time with the thought of what happened, and it always plays back in your mind,” he says.
He initially knew the policeman only as “Officer Friendly,” a visible presence in Chesley’s Washington, D.C. neighborhood at high school sporting events and other activities.
Addressing the documented ritual by which abusers find and target potentially vulnerable youth, Chesley recalls, “the ‘grooming’ process for me was just [the officer] being there and being nice and interested in me, and telling me I’m special.”
