After 'tough' few days, Lions LB Alex Anzalone can rest easy with his parents home
Alex Anzalone was up late Wednesday night, surfing social media, trying to keep tabs on his parents' plane flight home from Israel when he happened upon a video of passengers at the Tel Aviv airport with their heads down, taking cover from missile strikes.
No missiles came close to hitting the airport. The city's missile defense system made sure of that.
But after four harrowing days of waiting and wondering when his parents were going to make it out of the war-torn country safely, Anzalone was growing impatient about their departure.
"I’m texting my parents, 'Are you guys at the airport right now?' " the Detroit Lions linebacker told reporters Thursday. "And they’re like, 'No, we’re waiting for everything to calm down on the bus to go into the airport.' So once I figured they were in the airport, cleared through all that and got on the plane and got out of the airspace, I was really excited."
Anzalone's parents had been stranded in Jerusalem since war broke out between Israel and Hamas last weekend.
The veteran linebacker first shared news of his parents' plight after the Lions' 42-24 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, when he commented on a social media post by U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Florida), who said 53 of his constituents were visiting the country and looking to leave as soon as possible.
Anzalone deleted that post out of concerns about his parents' safety, but spent the past few days hoping and praying about their return.
"I had like the flight tracker, like FlightAware.com, I was tracking the flight and then once they got out of that airspace I was like, 'OK, I can go to sleep now,' " he said. "But it was tough."
Anzalone said he spoke to and texted with his parents throughout their odyssey, which began as a pilgrimage to Israel with their church group Oct. 2.
When Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, invaded Israel, Anzalone said his parents were in the Jerusalem hotel where they spent most of the past five days. Anzalone said his parents occasionally had to take shelter in the hotel's bunker, though he has yet to hear many other details about their trip.
"I know that they were in Jerusalem at one point and the 'iron dome' was working, put it that way," Anzalone said, referring to Israel's missile defense system. "They said they have videos of that. That’s all I really heard so far."
The Lions' leading tackler with 35 stops through five games, Anzalone said he buried himself in football whenever possible the past few days to try to stay "as sane as possible."
He talked to Florida congressman Gus Bilirakis about his parents' safety. His parents considered fleeing the country by car and trying to fly out of Jordan. But ultimately they left on their originally scheduled direct flight from Tel Aviv to Miami on El Al Israeli Airlines, which Anzalone said was equipped with its own missile defense system.
The Lions play the Buccaneers on Sunday in Tampa, Florida, and Anzalone said his parents will be at the game. He plans to see them Saturday night at the team hotel.
"First thing I'm going to do is get a big hug, but next thing I'm going to do is (ask) like, 'What exactly happened?' " Anzalone said. "Cause I know they were hiding the truth. I know they were in the bunker a few times in their hotel, but they only told me that when they knew for sure they were getting out, so I'm sure they’ll have some stories to tell."
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions LB Alex Anzalone can rest with parents home from Israel
