Underwood’s Mother Blames Church

Dimitrius Underwood’s mother says her son’s apparent suicide attempt and erratic behavior have been influenced by a “cult that’s posing as a church.”

Underwood, a defensive end from Michigan State who walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract only to return to football to support his family, slashed his neck and was found bleeding on a street in Lansing, Mich., police said Monday.

Underwood was listed in fair and improving condition at Sparrow Hospital after surgery Sunday. A hospital spokeswoman said he was able to talk and get out of bed.

Before she left Monday for Lansing from her Philadelphia home, Underwood’s mother, Eileen Underwood, said she wanted to speak out against a church Underwood began attending while at Michigan State.

“There are controlling spirits in there,” Underwood, an ordained minister, told The Miami Herald. “I visited one time and the pastor was talking about if a young man and woman in the church are dating and then they break up, he won’t let them date anyone else for six months.

“That’s not in the Bible. I know the Bible. That’s just someone trying to control people. It’s a den of witches sitting up in there.”

Underwood had been attending Immanuel’s Temple Community Church for about a year, the Lansing State Journal reported.

The Rev. Phillip Owens, the church’s pastor and prophet, dismissed the allegations by Underwood’s mother that the church is a cult.

“Any mother would be distraught,” he said. “She’s grasping at straws. What she may not be facing here is that her son has some problems. The church is not a cult.”

He also said he had not had contact with Underwood since he left for Miami.

Underwood has been placed on the reserve, non-football injury list by the Dolphins.

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San Diego police are investigating a 23-year-old man’s claim that Charger defensive end Chris Mims hit him twice with his belt and stole his food after a verbal confrontation outside a downtown taco shop early Monday morning.

Mims left the scene before officers arrived and hadn’t yet been contacted by police, spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Police were called to a Del Taco at about 2:40 a.m. Monday, some 10 hours after the Chargers lost their home opener, 27-19, to the Indianapolis Colts.

Michael J. McKinney told police that Mims threatened him, shoved his head into a wall, took his four tacos and then chased him, striking him twice with his belt.

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Pittsburgh Steeler rookie running back Amos Zereoue was charged with drunken driving early Tuesday and released into the custody of teammate Pete Gonzalez, police said.

Brentwood police chief George Swinney said Zereoue was stopped at about 2 a.m. after an officer saw his GMC Yukon fail to stop at a stop sign in Brentwood, a suburb a few miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Zereoue then failed a field sobriety test.