When Football Stars Attack: Shawne Merriman Arrested for Beating on Tila Tequila

Just the other day we had that moron from the University of Oregon going nuts and today we have another football player with obvious anger issues.

I'm just sure the San Diego Chargers are loving this.

Deputies arrested San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman early Sunday morning for allegedly choking and restraining his MTV star girlfriend as she tried to leave his Poway home.

The Sheriff's Department said Merriman's girlfriend, Tila Tequila, 27, signed a citizen's arrest warrant, charging him with battery and false imprisonment.

Deputies responded to a disturbance call at Merriman's home near the intersection of Sage Crest and Oak Knoll drives about 3:45 a.m. Tequila, whose real name is Tila Nguyen, told deputies she had been choked and physically restrained by Merriman when she tried to leave.

Tequila was treated for her injuries at Poway's Pomerado Hospital, which does not release information on patients treated for domestic violence injuries.

Merriman, 25, was taken into custody by deputies, but the Sheriff's Department would not say whether he was still in jail Sunday morning. Merriman could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Tequila is best known for her reality show, “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila,” which ran for two seasons on MTV. The bisexual dating show featured straight men and lesbians vying for Tequila's affections.

Tequila could not be reached for comment Sunday.

According to Tequila's Twitter page, she was in town this weekend to attend her first Chargers game on Friday against the San Francisco 49ers. In several tweets, she expresses her love for Merriman.

“Im tweeting you from the next ... room ... WAKE YOUR --- UP! LOL. ... awwww U sleeping like an angel. ... SExy Sexy babay!” she wrote Saturday in one of her last messages to Merriman.

Neither Merriman nor Tequila had tweeted about the incident as of Sunday morning.