Tony Jefferson, Cardinals secondary wary of Greenbrier ghosts
Oct 15, 2015, 4:17 PM
Arizona Cardinals' Tony Jefferson, pictured here on June 10, 2015, in Tempe, Ariz., has been hearing things while staying at the Greenbrier Resort.
The Arizona Cardinals’ week of living on the road hasn’t elicited many complaints from the players. Trees, mountains and golf have made living pretty swell in their temporary home, The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.
But it seems the Cardinals’ defensive backs have been dealing with a stressful situation.
Legend has it the ghost of Zona Heaster, who in 1897 was murdered in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, haunts the resort that opened in 1778.
Arizona safety Tony Jefferson is a believer.
“The very first night I heard something,” Jefferson told reporters in West Virginia on Thursday. “It was like a little girl voice, I promise, it was like (whispering sounds). The lights have not been out ever since. I’m not taking any chances.”
Apparently, a few hotel workers turned the Cardinals’ defensive back unit on to the possibility of ghosts haunting the resort. And like a well-oiled secondary, the players are working together to stay safe.
“No question I’m traveling in a pack,” cornerback Patrick Peterson said. “It’s me, Jerraud (Powers), Rashad (Johnson) and Tyrann (Mathieu). We’re all in the same room, basically. When one leaves, we all leave.
“I haven’t seen anything,” he added. “I do hear some weird noises at night but I don’t pay no mind to it. I fall right asleep.”
Erik Hastings, director of communications at the resort, told Bickley and Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 that he had never seen a ghost at The Greenbrier. The resort may have gotten the reputation because it served as a military hospital during the Civil War and again in the 1940s. So yes, people have died there.
“Does that mean the place is haunted?” Hastings said. “I think plenty of people have died at the local KFC or the Long John Silver’s. Does that make that place haunted? I don’t know.”
It would appear that Jefferson is the most cautious. His teammates confirmed the safety has been sleeping with the lights on, and Jefferson wasn’t denying that he’s not taking the situation so well.
“I got to get sang to sleep. I have my girl call me and sing me to sleep,” he said.
