Friday, December 18, 2009

Must Read

Unfortunate happenings yesterday, Chris Henry, WR from the Bengals died from injuries in a weird truck accident. I'm not talking about the details of the accident, just more about the situation of an athlete dieing in the middle of the season and his team having to play a game days after the tragedy. I've had many run-ins with death starting at a young age when my mom died, and a few years ago losing someone very special to me. When my mom died nobody made me go to school, when my friend died I quit my job and moved back home to live my brother. I didn't have to go out and play a sporting event 3 days after either. The Redskins went through this situation 3 years ago when Safety Sean Taylor was murdered in his own home, after his death we played Buffalo to a close game, losing after coach Gibbs called back to back timeouts and moving their kicker 5 yards closer for the the game winning FG. After that game, we stepped up the rest of the season and made the playoffs. The team had many players take the death hard, mostly Clinton Portis and Santana Moss, who along with Taylor attended "The U." Fortunatly for the Bengals, they are in better position than the Skins were, being in first place and in the drivers seat for a playoff spot.

I have to give it up to athletes who can get over the death of a teammate and play. I remember being so mad that we lost after Taylor's death but in hindsight I think I was wrong. We didn't play for him that game, we played for him the rest of the season. I hope the Bengals can use Henry's death as inspiration for their playoff run. I'm not sure how they'll respond this weekend, but I think after this week they will play for the honor of Henry.

I do have to compare Henry and Taylor simply because when I heard about Chris, I thought of Sean T. right away. Henry and Taylor were both considered troublemakers early in their careers. Sean used the birth of his daughter to help him grow up, Henry used a couple of suspensions from the league to grow up. Both were tremendous talents and died way to young. Both were hurt when their deaths occured, Henry was done for the year, Sean was hurt and missed the game against Tampa Bay the day he got attacked. The robbers apparently thought he wouldn't be home, I guess they couldn't read the injury report. I wish both men could have kept living and reached their true potential.

I'll end with this, my prayers are going out to the Henry family, his children, and the Bengals family. I hope the league has everyone wear 15 stickers on their helmets the rest of the year.

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