Former Jets center Nick Mangold was in his fourth season when Mark Sanchez was the rookie quarterback who led head coach Rex Ryan to the 2009 AFC Championship game, a 30-17 loss to the Colts in Indianapolis, the scene of the alleged crime this past Saturday.
“I’ve known Mark since 2009, that’s 16 years, and he doesn’t have an aggressive bone in his body,” Mangold told the Post. “For something of this to happen, something obviously wasn’t right that night, and I hope they get to the bottom of it.”
Mangold, who played with Sanchez through the 2012 season, texted Sanchez when he learned his former teammate had been stabbed but did not hear back.
Sanchez, 38, was stabbed in the chest outside of a bar during an altercation with a 69-year-old grease truck driver at 12:30 AM on Saturday.
Sanchez, who was in Indianapolis to call the Colts-Raiders game for Fox, was arrested and charged while hospitalized on Saturday as authorities believe he was the aggressor.
Timeline of the Mark Sanchez stabbing and arrest
Friday Night
- Mark Sanchez, 38, is in Indianapolis to serve as a Fox Sports analyst for the Raiders-Colts game on Sunday. He’s observed acting “erratically,” doing “wind sprints” in the alley behind Loughmiller’s Pub and Eatery in the downtown.
Just after midnight
- A grease truck driver picking up cooking oil from a nearby hotel parks his truck in the loading dock, blocking the alley where Sanchez is doing sprints.
- Sanchez approaches the driver to try to get him to move and eventually gets into an altercation where he body-slams him toward the wall and then to the ground.
- The driver sprayed Sanchez with mace or pepper spray, but the former NFL quarterback continues attacking him.
- The driver pulls a knife and stabs Sanchez two or three times in the chest, believing, “This guy is trying to kill me.”
- Sanchez turns around and heads up the alley.
12:30 a.m.
- Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers respond to a report of a person shot. They locate Sanchez in Loughmiller’s Pub.
- It’s later reported that Sanchez is uncooperative with responding officers. He tells the detective he can only remember “grabbing for a window” and nothing else about the incident.
- Sanchez is rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
- The driver also suffered “significant injuries,” including lacerations to his cheek and jaw, with a cut that allegedly went through his cheek and hit his tongue.
Saturday
- Sanchez undergoes surgery for stab wounds to the chest, and is stable.
- He is arrested at the hospital and charged with misdemeanor counts of battery resulting in injury, public intoxication, and unlawful entry of a motor vehicle.
Sunday
- Sanchez is discharged from the hospital Sunday morning and transferred directly to central booking at Marion County Jail, where he reportedly posts his $300 cash bond.
Monday
“It’s completely out of character,” Mangold said. “The Mark I know wouldn’t do this. They obviously have video footage of him doing it, but it seems so out of character.”
Sanchez has since been released from the hospital and was taken directly to jail.
The charges against Sanchez were upgraded to a Level 5 felony battery of causing serious injury, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said on Monday morning.
