Cincinnati Bengals
Bengals mourn Henry
By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com Posted December 17, 2009 12:12 PM ET
His eyes flushed red, welled with tears, Chad Ochocinco struggled to find words to express his feelings on the death of his friend and teammate, Chris Henry.
Decal the Bengals will wear to honor Chris Henry
"He was doing everything right, he was doing everything right," Ochocinco 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."
Henry died Thursday morning as a result of injuries sustained in an accident in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday. He was 26 and a father of three.
Teammates, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis and owner Mike Brown all remembered Henry on Thursday, telling a story of a person different than the one often seen in mugshots and once described by a judge as a "one-man crime wave."
"Chris was a guy that I believe and our team believes was heavily misunderstood," Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer said. "There was a lot of speculation about who he was, but the only guys that knew Chris and knew how good of a heart he had, how kind he was, how gentle he was, how soft of a heart he had, were the guys in our locker room, the guys who were close to him, his family."
Brown remembered speaking to Henry alone at a team Christmas party years ago, and finding out Henry was an interesting, intelligent and caring person.
"We knew him in a different way than his public persona," Brown said. "He was soft spoken, pleasant, comfortable to be around. We like him. He had worked through troubles in his life and finally seemingly reached the point where everything was going to blossom and he was going to have the future we all wanted for him. And he wanted for himself and then this tragedy cut him down. It's painful to us. We feel it in our hearts and we will miss him."
Brown was clearly the driving force behind Henry still being a Bengal. Henry had been released by the team in April of 2008 following an arrest, but Brown resigned him in August of 2008. Despite Lewis' displeasure with the signing, the Bengals re-signed Henry following a rash of incidents early in his career.
"It's a very difficult thing with his loss and a young life and one that won't ever get to reach its full potential," Lewis said. "It's a shame where our prayers are with his family, his mom, brothers, children as they deal with his loss and I think our guys and the solemn mood we have here today."
Palmer gathered the team before their morning walk-through and told them of Henry's passing. Palmer and veteran offensive guard Bobbie Williams spoke to the team about Henry and moving on from the latest tragedy. Earlier this season, defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer's wife passed away unexpectedly.
The team will wear helmet stickers honoring Henry in Sunday's game against the Chargers in San Diego and coaches will wear pins to honor the fallen player.
"It's tough, it's been a tough year, losing Mike's wife, losing Chris, the whole tsunami - it's been a tough year, but through these tough times, these storms, that's when your team knits together," said Domata Peko, a native of American Samoa, which was hit by a tsunami earlier this year. "I can feel it now, we're getting closer together and guys are talking to each other about what Chris meant to them. We're going to pull together and fight through this hard time and press together to get these last few wins for Chris and Mike's wife."
Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories, News
Tags: Carson Palmer, Chad Ochocinco, Chris Henry, Domata Peko, Marvin Lewis, Mike Brown
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