Jonathan Davis’ Blog

This past Sunday the Cincinnati Bengals lost at the San Diego Chargers 27-24 thanks to place kicker Nate Kaeding’s 52-yard field goal at the gun. The loss by the Bengals ended all hopes of being the No. 2 seed in the American Football Conference (AFC) and a first-found by. The loss paled in comparison from what the team had to deal with this week when a member of their family who embodied the team’s sudden turnaround this season tragically lost his life.

Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry passed away last Thursday morning after sustaining very severe injuries when he was thrown from the back of a pickup truck that was being driven by his fiancée Loleini Tonga, of Charlotte, N.C. He was 26 years old.

 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said that Henry died at 6:36 a.m. that day. He leaves behind his fiancée the aforementioned Tonga and their three children.

 

Henry’s sudden passing shocked the entire Bengals organization as they heard about the situation an hour before meeting at their regularly scheduled 11 a.m. time with reporters. While many of the players did not speak to the media, those who did very saddened by this tragic event.

 

“Chris was a very good friend of mine. Really extremely close. It’s said to see that it’s come to this point,” Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco said to the media on Thursday while fighting back tears. “He was doing everything right. My grandmother 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.”

 

Ochocinco wore a No. 15 jersey to practice yesterday in memory of Henry. He did flirt with the idea of wearing Henry’s jersey in yesterday’s contest, but did not. Instead he went to his knees upon scoring a 49-yard touchdown reception and said repeatedly “85 and 15 always be 100 ways for us to be great.” After the game, he dressed in the locker area that the team had in honor of Chris Henry.  

 

“This is definitely sad,” said Bengals guard Bobbie Williams. “He’s a young kid that was definitely on the right path to doing right and trying to do right by himself and his family.”

 

Even in an important win that clinched the AFC West division and essentially the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs, the Chargers (11-3) understood the gravity of what the Bengals were going through.

 

“I can’t say enough about Cincinnati and the way they responded,” said Chargers head coach Norv Turner. “The week had to be a tough week for them…It’s a difficult thing to deal with. My hats off to Cincinnati and what they were able to do.”

 

Henry had played in eight games this season where he had 12 receptions for 236 yards and two touchdowns. His 19.7 yards per catch led the Bengals. His season came to an end when he suffered a broken forearm in the Bengals’ 17-7 victory versus their AFC North rival the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 8. He was placed on injured reserve.

 

“We are greatly saddened by today’s tragic news about the loss of Chris Henry,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Thursday to NFL.com. “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.”

 

Henry was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday after he was found on a residential road in Charlotte. According to a 9-1-1 call to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Henry was in the bed of the yellow truck with a tag that read F-150. It was revealed in that call the Henry was on the truck shirtless with just black pants, black sneakers on and he was beating on the back of the truck.

 

An eyewitness to the situation told ESPN’s Shannon Spake that when she ran outside and got to Henry, he was laying flat on the ground unresponsive and foaming at the mouth.

 

The police for now are calling the case a domestic dispute, but it is being looked at by Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Homicide and Traffic Safety Units. No charges have been filed to Tonga.

 

In his days at West Virginia, Chris Henry used his talents to the equivalent of 93 receptions for 1,878 yards and 12 touchdowns in his three seasons. He redshirted his freshmen year of 2002. He was named Big-East Conference freshmen of the year in 2003 and received All-Big East second-team honors.

 

In 2005, the Bengals selected him in the 3^rd round of the 2005 NFL Draft and helped the team right from the get go with 31 receptions, 422 yards and six touchdowns in his rookie seasons. He helped the team make the playoffs for the first time since 1990. They unfortunately lost in the Wild Card round to the eventual Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers 31-17.

 

Henry’s troubles off the field began in the final month of 2005 season when he was arrested for marijuana possession in northern Kentucky. After the playoff loss to the Steelers, he was arrested on gun charges in Florida. In total from Dec. 2005-Sept. 2006, Henry was arrested four times in seven months.

 

That history of trouble resulted in Commissioner Goodell suspended Henry the first eight games of the 2007 NFL season because of his countless violations of the NFL personal conduct policy. That suspension that occurred on April 10^th of that year also came with a serious warning that if Henry did not change his ways that his professional football career would be over.

 

An alleged assault of a valet attendant at Newport on the Levee in Newport, KY on Nov. 6, 2007, a second arrest in Orlando, FL on Dec. 3, 2007 for violating his probation, which he was found guilty on Feb. 21, 2008 and a punch to a man named Gregory Meyer, 18 as well as the throwing of a beer bottle through the window of his car ended Henry’s time with Bengals. He was released on Apr. 3, 2008.

 

On that same day, the judge presiding over the case of Henry’s assault charges called him a “one-man crime waive.”

 

After all that the Bengals had to deal with Henry, nobody thought he would be back in the NFL again. He was resigned by the Bengals on Aug. 18, 2008 to a two-year contract. He was suspended for the first four games of that season. He returned to the field on Oct. 4. He finished 2008 with 19 receptions for 220 yards and two scores.  

 

According to the Cincinnati Bengals beat writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer Joe Reedy, after Henry was released from the team, the Bengals kept in contact with him for a 4 ½ month period and learned that he had cut ties with those that had a bad influence on him and that he had stabilized his life with his fiancée and their three children.

 

“I’m just totally different,” Henry said on the June 11 edition of ESPN’s First Take. “Got my mind set on just being a professional athlete. Trying to be a great teammate and trying to get our team to the playoffs. I just made a total 360 with my whole life really.”

 

“Chris was a guy I believe and our team believes was heavily misunderstood,” says Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer. “A lot of speculation who Chris was, but the only guys who knew Chris and knew how big a heart he had. How kind he was. How gentle and soft of a heart he had were the guys in our locker room. The guys that was close to him.”

 

It is that evolution that Henry showed until his untimely passing why the Bengals (9-5) have gone from next to last in the AFC North (4-11-1) to the top.

 

“He signifies this football team,” says guard Andre Whitwhorth. “Nobody believed he could turn his life around. Nobody believed this football team could turn around…and we both did it and he signifies everything we are.”

 

From his three years at the University of West Virginia to his five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, Henry was a talented player who had the makings of becoming a very special football player. For all of that talent he displayed on the football, his showed his immaturity off the field as he had many run-ins with the law and it eventually cost him his football career. When given another chance by the Bengals, he was headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, that evolution was cut short.

 

Tomorrow, the Bengals will fly to New Orleans. LA for the funeral of Henry. According to ESPN’s Bob Holtzman, the team will take a chartered plane that seats 182 people and is expected to carry a full compliment of the people of the Bengals.

 

Information, quotes and statistics are courtesy of en.wikipedia.org; www.espn.go.com; Thursday 12/18/09 5 p.m.edition of ESPN 2’s Outside the Lines First Report 12/17/09; 12/17/09 4 p.m. edition of ESPN’s NFL Live; 12/17/09 5 p.m. edition of FOX 5 at 5; Friday, 12/18/09 edition of Newsday; NFL.com