Late last night, someone sent me an email asking did I hear about "Chris Henry's accident?". That person made a statement that reminded me how often the bells seems to toll around this time of year for those who will not make it into the new year. There seems to be an interesting, morbid, almost fascinating countdown as the morning news announces the passing of well-known individuals in entertainment or we receive emails and phone calls announcing bad news! I didn't know Chris Henry personally, but being here in the Greater Cincinnati area, I sure felt like I did. It's right here that all the drama from the What-Did-Chris Henry-Do-Now Show seemed to play right on out! It's here that I watched local sports fans and media build him up just to tear him down! Granted, for awhile, Chris Henry seemed intent on making a disaster out of his life. He attracted all manner of low-lifes and hangers-on from trashy females to wimpy pimple-faced college kids looking to make a quick buck off of his name. And the public loved to hate him! Oh, how well I remember how so many of us equated him with the scum of the earth and enjoyed damning him to Hell while he was caught up in the throes of his personal problems.
But God gave him a second chance to get it right!
He was suspended from the Bengals, but Marvin Lewis hired him back! Chris Henry seemed to turn over a new leaf! He kept a low profile instead of hanging out with low-lifes! He gained the respect of his teammates as he rededicated himself to his sport! Everytime I saw him I'd smile a little bit and say to myself "Well.....Chris Henry is keeping out of trouble. God bless him." Look what work, personal desire and a little love can do! And then...the shocking news of his tragic death! Some say it's untimely end! I'm not getting into whether it is or isn't, but I do believe he accomplished what he was supposed to while he was here! I think Henry decided it was all about his own personal integrity and not about immaturity, nor the flash, flair & fame that comes with being a football star! I think he made well of that second chance while he had the chance and that will forever be exemplary!
Thank God most of us love a redemption song!
I am not a sports-writer, so I'd like to share with you a wonderful piece written by one MJD over at the Yahoo sports blog, Shutdown Corner! It's one of the most heartfelt I've read yet.........
Chris Henry Dead at 26! Could have been a role model!
Redemption stories are the best kinds of stories. If someone's failed, lost their way or made more mistakes than we deem acceptable, I always find myself on that guy's side.
I'm not there supporting what they've done or making excuses for them, but hoping that they'll find a way to be better. Hoping that they'll learn from their mistakes, grow and become the person they can be. In one way or another, I think we're all striving for that.
That's what Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was doing when he lost his life this morning after falling out of a truck reportedly driven by his fiancee.
We know the guy had made mistakes, getting arrested multiple times and being suspended for half of the 2007 season, but those aren't important today. That was Henry's past. By all accounts, his future was better and brighter, because he had worked his tail off to make it that way. Changing your life is not easy.
Henry was doing it, though. In the preseason, his quarterback, Carson Palmer(notes), had raved about Henry's work ethic and his ability. According to Palmer, Henry had a great offseason and had "really turned his life around." Unfortunately, his season was cut short by injury when he broke his forearm against the Ravens on November 8.
He was 26 when he lost his life this morning. Just 26 years old. For as many headlines as he had made, it seemed like he should be older. The fact was, though, that he was still a very young man. He was just entering his football prime, and considering his natural gifts and the signs he had been showing before being put on injured reserve this year, he could have gone on to have a great, great career.
That's the tragedy here. It's not that we'll miss out on seeing a man who could have been a brilliant player, it's that someone who had once been so far down the wrong path could have come back. He was on his way. If things had continued to go the way they were headed, Chris Henry could have one day stood in front of the world as an example that no matter what you've done in the past, that your future can be better. He could have told the at-risk youth of the world, "Yes, it can be difficult to change the direction of your life, but it can be done, and you have the power to do it. I did it, and you can do it."
What a great thing that could've been for the world to have. Too many times, a gifted person comes along, and we automatically make them a role model. Inevitably, they end up doing something to let us down. The truth is, though, that those were never the role models we needed. The role models we need are the people who let us down first, and then show the strength and character to fight back from that.
Sooner or later, we're all going to let somebody down. We're all going to screw up. But life is about how you come back from it, how you learn from it and how you use it to make yourself a better, stronger person.
Chris Henry was becoming that guy. And we could have used that.
And from a story written by Associated Press writer Mike Cranston (with contributions from Mitch Weiss & AP Sports writer Joe Kay in Cincinnati) comes this more detailed report....
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry died Thursday, a day after falling out of the back of a pickup truck during what police said was a domestic dispute with his fiancee. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Henry died at 6:36 a.m. Henry was 26.
“We knew him in a different way than his public persona,” Bengals owner Mike Brown(notes) said of the player who was suspended five times during his career. “He had worked through the troubles in his life and had finally seemingly reached the point where everything was going to blossom. And he was going to have the future we all wanted for him. It’s painful to us. We feel it in our hearts, and we will miss him.”
Police spokeswoman Rosalyn Harrington said homicide detectives have been assigned to the case but had no further information. Later Thursday, police released two 911 tapes. The first was from an unidentified woman who said she was following a yellow pickup truck.
“It’s got a black man on it with no shirt on, and he’s got his arm in a cast and black pants on,” she told a dispatcher. “He’s beating on the back of this truck window. … I don’t know if he’s trying to break in or something. It just looks crazy. It’s a girl driving it.” Just over a minute later, an unidentified man called 911 and said he saw a man “laying in the road” and “definitely unconscious.”
Henry was rushed to the hospital Wednesday after being found on a curvy section of a residential road. Police said the dispute began at a home about a half-mile away, and Henry jumped into the bed of the pickup truck as his fiancee was driving away from the residence. Police said at some point when she was driving, Henry “came out of the back of the vehicle.” Harrington wouldn’t say if the woman, whom police would not identify, was present at the scene when police arrived.
Henry is engaged to Loleini Tonga, and the couple has been raising three children. Tonga’s MySpace page identifies herself as “Mrs. C. Henry” and has a picture of her next to a person who appears to be Henry. She also has a post from Tuesday talking about buying wedding rings. A neighbor said Wednesday that the Tonga family owns the home where police say the incident began. Charlotte is home to his fiancee’s parents.
“We ask that you keep Chris’ family—especially the young children he leaves behind—in your prayers,” Henry’s agent, Andy Simms of PlayersRep Sports said in a statement. “It is tragic when a life is taken so young. He was a man just realizing his potential, not just in football, but in life.”
Authorities have not announced the cause of death. Mecklenburg County medical examiner investigator Carol Cormier said they were expecting to receive the body later Thursday.
The Bengals will wear a helmet sticker Sunday against San Diego to remember Henry.
When the players received word Henry had died, quarterback Carson Palmer(notes) called them together in the locker room and said they should dedicate the game and rest of the season to Henry and the wife of defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, who died unexpectedly during the season. Henry was away from the Bengals after breaking his left forearm during a win over Baltimore on Nov. 8. He had surgery and was placed on season-ending injured reserve following the game.
“We are greatly saddened by today’s tragic news about the loss of Chris Henry,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chris’ family, including his Bengals family. We have been in contact with the Bengals to offer our support through this difficult time. “I ask you to keep Chris Henry and his family in your thoughts today.”
Throughout his career, his temper and poor decisions got him in trouble.
He was ejected from a game and suspended for another while at West Virginia, where former coach Rich Rodriguez told Henry that he was an embarrassment to himself and the program. His reputation was already costing him—the Bengals were the only NFL team to bring him in for a pre-draft visit in 2005. They found that his demeanor didn’t match his reputation. Henry was shy and spoke in a quiet voice. They warned him that he had to stay in control if he was going to stay in the NFL. Then, they picked him in the third round.
In a sense, it was already a second chance.
“I’m worth the chance,” Henry said, when he showed up the following weekend for a rookie minicamp. “I’m just happy they took me.”
Henry become a vital part of the offense as a rookie, helping the Bengals reach the playoffs in 2005 with his ability to run past defenders to grab long passes. In the final month of the season, he also showed his other side, getting arrested for marijuana possession. After a playoff loss to Pittsburgh, he was arrested on a gun charge in Florida. Henry and former Tennessee cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones became the league’s two most trouble-bound players. Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended both in 2007—Jones for a full season, Henry for half of it—as part of a toughening of the league’s conduct policy.
When Henry was arrested for a fifth time following that season on an assault charge, the Bengals decided they’d had enough. At his arraignment on April 3, 2008, Municipal Court Judge Bernie Bouchard called Henry “a one-man crime wave.” He was released by the Bengals the same day. It was a jolt to Henry, who had dreamed of an NFL career since high school, when he got the NFL logo tattooed on the back of his right hand. No team showed an interest in bringing him back. His career seemed finished.
Then, Brown—who refers to himself as “a redeemer”—changed his mind and gave him another chance.
“If you only knew him by hearsay, you’d think he’s some kind of ogre,” Brown said, during the Bengals’ appearance on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series this summer. “It’s not true. He’s a good person. When you see him up close, you’ll find that you’ll like him. He’ll be a soft-spoken, pleasant person.”
This time, Henry seemed determined to stay out of trouble. After only 19 catches and two touchdowns in 12 games in the 2008 season, he set about making himself a topflight receiver again. He got into top shape and worked out with teammates in the offseason, showing more resolve than at any point in his career. Henry also changed his personal life, spending more time with his fiancee and the three children they are raising. Teammates noticed a pronounced change in his demeanor.
“He’s a great kid with a great heart,” quarterback Carson Palmer said as training camp started. “He’s changed his life around. He ran into some trouble, made some bad decisions, and realized that. He’s sorry for them, apologized for them, and has done everything he can to make himself a better person. I’m just proud of him.”
Before the 2009 season, Henry got a new tattoo that matched his new outlook. Below his left ear, in flowing one-inch script, was the world “Blessed.”
“I kind of felt like I dug myself out of the hole and started doing the right things,” Henry said in an interview with The Associated Press as training camp opened. “People say, ‘How you feeling now Chris? You doing all right?’ I just tell them I’m blessed. That’s why I got it.”
He caught a touchdown pass in each of Cincinnati’s four preseason games. A thigh injury slowed him early in the season, and he had 12 catches for 236 yards — his 19.7-yard average per catch leads the team—when he broke his left arm during a win over Baltimore on Nov. 22, ending his season.
“He was doing everything right,” receiver Chad Ochocinco(notes) said. “My grandma always says you never question the man upstairs on decisions he makes. Everyone makes mistakes, but I don’t see how Chris was supposed to go already, especially when he was on the right path. Other than that, he’s going to be missed.”
Rest In Peace!