The loss of someone who’s young is definitely tragic, but the death of Chris Henry, the Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver, is also a damn shame.

As an investigation ensues, inevitably more of the dirty details will come to light and all of the negative things Henry had presumably grown passed will be drudged to the surface.  However, in the past year, Henry seemed like a young man who had finally started a new chapter in his life, making his death even more tragic.

A third round draft pick in 2005, Henry was better known for his off-field arrests than being one of the most dynamic No. 3 receivers in the NFL.  My friend, who knows of him from Henry’s college years at West Virginia University, always pointed to Henry’s exploits as a sign of immaturity, and not because he was malicious person.

After multiple behavioral issues were documented at WVU, Cincinnati was the only NFL team to bring Henry in for a workout.  The Bengals drafted him even after his former college coach Rich Rodriguez, in 2005, cited Henry as “an embarrassment to himself and the program.”  This statement was made after Henry was ejected from the Rutgers game for multiple unsportsmanlike penalties.  Henry was then suspended for the following game against the Mountaineers top rival, Pitt.

The suspension didn’t stop in college as Henry was suspended on multiple occasions while playing in the NFL.  Henry was suspended for eight games in 2007, but that still wasn’t enough to change the trouble-prone star.  For a time, people were mentioning him and Adam “Pac-man” Jones as examples of what was wrong with the NFL and how playing in the league was privilege not a right.  Roger Goodell had the same sentiments as Rodriguez when Goodell suspended Henry, saying he was an embarrassment to the league.

After another suspension in 2008, he finally started to get it.  He began to seek help for his problems, contacting Michael Irvin who had similar behavioral issues when he was a young man.  He left the people in his life who were negative influences on him, and took time to address the demons that were causing his demise.

“I don’t live the way I did in the past,” Henry said, in an interview with The Associated Press during training camp. “I kind of plan my days out and take it one day at a time and stay away from the wrong people. I’m not partying anymore. I’m just focused on football right now and my family. I don’t associate with the same people. I’ve completely changed everything.”

Henry signed with the Bengals again (who were ridiculed at the time for taking yet another chance on the much maligned receiver) and had a grand total of zero arrests in 18-months.  As a reminder of the multiple chances he was given by the Bengals and in life, Henry inked “Blessed” below in left ear because he finally realized all the blessings he was given.

Though quiet at first, he started to develop into the receiver the Bengals always hoped he would when they took him back in 2005.  After breaking his forearm in November, Henry was placed on Injured Reserve, but his impact couldn’t be understated.  Team leader Carson Palmer repeatedly said how important and how different Henry was this season.  This sentiment was echoed on the critically acclaimed HBO program, ‘Hard Knocks,’ where viewers saw a human side of Henry, one I had heard about years before.

Henry credited his new found maturity to his fiancee and his children.  So, when I saw the New York Daily News’ website this morning, and discovered the terrible news, I was devastated by the picture of Henry, his fiancee – now at the center of this story, and their three young children.  Just as the troubled young man was finally putting it all together and moving toward a promising future, the 26-year-old’s comeback feel-good story ends in death.

Henry was no saint by any stretch of the imagination, and he had done some really stupid and immature things.  But our society loves second acts in life and it seemed that Henry was well on his way to turning his life around and becoming a success story in the NFL and, more importantly, in life.  Unfortunately, Henry’s story will forever be incomplete …

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Daniel Kohn is a guest writer for The Sports Union and the owner of the Kohn Pub, which is always packed with angry New York fans.  The self-proclaimed hater of anything not authentically New York, like the Jets.  Kohn is a writer for the Huffington Post and has managed to not only piss off all conservatives by writing for the Post but also to enrage most of the liberals that frequent the site.

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