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Chris Henry dies after being in car accident

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Jungle1 Super Bowl Champ

Jungle1

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[quote name='Tigers Johnson' date='17 December 2009 - 10:11 AM' timestamp='1261059108' post='843852']
I keep praying...and hoping....

...but I keep feeling like I am waiting for the other shoe to drop....


Come on Chris!
[/quote]


I feel the same way. Last night, I woke up every couple hours and checked the news only to find no real update.
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[b][size="5"]Reflections on Chris Henry from the locker room[/size][/b]
By John Erardi • [email="jerardi@enquirer.com"]jerardi@enquirer.com[/email] • December 17, 2009


I've grown to like Chris Henry.

All I know of him personally is what stood in front of me on Monday and Wednesday mornings in the Bengals lockerroom, where it was and is my job to talk to the players and afterward write short stories.

I saw a tall, lean, quiet, kid who wanted to get better as a football player and was doing all the right things to make it happen.

[i]A kid. [/i]

I don't like it when I hear college basketball coaches refer to their players as "kids."

But, clearly, some of them are still kids -- if the message there is that they are still learning.

That's what I saw in Henry.

The only attitude I saw was a good one.

He was saying all the right things, and on the field, he was doing all the right things.

As long as he was a contributing member of this team, I didn't expect something terrible to happen to him.

And as long as he stayed a contributing member of this team, I believed he had a good chance of turning his life around.

With one key proviso.

I felt strongly that he needed to find a sustaining support system away from the field and lockerroom.

He needed to have a good life away from the game.

I thought he had finally found that life with his finance, Loleini Tonga. They were planning to get married in March.

I knew well the story of Henry's checkered past. It included his being arrested 3½ years ago for providing alcohol to three underage girls in a Covington hotel room.

Of all the things Henry did, I considered that the most heinous, because it involved [i]real [/i]kids.

I didn't give Henry the benefit of the doubt on that one.

But I was curious to see where his life would go from there.

Even when he got hurt in a Bengals game midway through this season, I felt his family outside football would sustain him.

I didn't expect him to wind up in a domestic squabble Wednesday afternoon that, according to a police report, turned so serious that it escalated into him jumping into the bed of a pickup-truck, being thrown from it and ending up on life support.

Before I began covering the Bengals, I believed Henry was an impediment to the "team" concept, and that it probably would take a miracle to save him from himself.

He had served an eight-game disciplinary suspension a year after the incident in Covington.

But he appeared to be turning his life around after that suspension.

Then, a year ago last April, he was released by the Bengals following his fifth arrest in 28 months. Most everybody, including me, figured he was history.

But four months later, the Bengals re-signed him because team owner Mike Brown fully appreciated Henry's unique talents and understood his irreplaceable value to the team's passing game and felt the kid was salvageable as a human being and decided to give him yet another chance.

At the time, I recall thinking, "Good for you, Mike Brown," even though it appeared that almost everybody else in town was against bringing Henry back. They felt Brown had undercut his head coach, Marvin Lewis, and was sending the wrong message to the team and community at large.

Especially to the community that works with [i]real [/i]kids. Some of those caregivers are real professionals; some of us are parents. Almost all of us have problems if we're raising kids.

So, yes, I get all that.

But I just felt it had a chance to work if the right people came along.

I thought they had.

But I also knew that all bets might be off if his connection to his football family was broken.

I just didn't know if Henry was ready to make tough, good, decisions on his own. Because even with a good fiancé, a good wife, a good family, it's not all about them.

Sometimes it's about you.

I have no idea what was in Henry's mind when he made that decision to jump into the bed of that pickup.

But it was a horrible decision.




(Click the link below for the entire article)



[url="http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091217/COL19/312170053/1156/COL19/Reflections+on+Chris+Henry+from+the+locker+room"]http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091217/COL19/312170053/1156/COL19/Reflections+on+Chris+Henry+from+the+locker+room[/url]
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Who Dey Time Pro Bowler

Who Dey Time

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[quote name='ccartman2' date='17 December 2009 - 10:49 AM' timestamp='1261061399' post='843873']
Not a great source but TMZ just reported that he has died. Just so you know. Hope they are wrong.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/12/17/nfl-star-chris-henry-dies/
[/quote]

The NBC affiliate in Charlotte is also reporting that Slim has passed.

http://www.wcnc.com/sports/Bengals-wide-receiver-involved-in-Charlotte-wreck-79449252.html

I don't think shock is even the correct word for this. Please keep Chris' family in your thoughts.
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Elflocko Hall Of Fame

|Elflocko|

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[quote name='ccartman2' date='17 December 2009 - 07:49 AM' timestamp='1261061399' post='843873']
Not a great source but TMZ just reported that he has died. Just so you know. Hope they are wrong.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/12/17/nfl-star-chris-henry-dies/
[/quote]

Ugh. TMZ is a better source than you think... :(

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spicoli Hall Of Fame

spicoli

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CINCINNATI -- Bengals Wide Receiver Chris Henry died Thursday after a domestic dispute in North Carolina.

Police said Henry and his fiancée, Loleini Tonga, who lives in the area, had been arguing in the 800 block of Peachtree Road when Tonga tried to drive away in a pickup.

Henry jumped into the bed of the pickup and the couple continued arguing as Tonga drove, police said.

Police said Henry fell out of the pickup at some point and landed in the roadway, causing life-threatening injuries.

Charlotte police announced that Henry died at 6:36 a.m. Thursday.

No charges have been filed, but homicide detectives were investigating the crash.

Henry had been placed on injured reserve since Nov. 9 with a dislocated forearm, ending his season.

The fifth-year player was cut from the Bengals in March 2008 after a string of arrests and other legal trouble, but the team re-signed him in August 2008.

The former third-round pick from West Virginia has caught 119 passes, including 21 touchdowns, for 1,826 yards during his career.

Henry had not been in any legal trouble since returning to the Bengals before the 2008 season.

http://www.wlwt.com/sports/21987045/detail.html
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[quote name='Who Dey Time' date='17 December 2009 - 09:55 AM' timestamp='1261061744' post='843874']
[url="http://www.wcnc.com/...k-79449252.html"]http://www.wcnc.com/...k-79449252.html[/url]
[/quote]






Police confirmed to NewsChannel 36 that Henry died at 6:36 a.m.




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