Chris Henry’s death should motivate the NFL to be more proactive when it comes to the long-term health of players
Posted by Anthony Stalter (06/29/2010 @ 12:30 pm)
I’m not a doctor and therefore, I’m not qualified to draw conclusions about what eventually happens to people’s brains after years of playing contact sports – most notably football.
But the latest news involving Chris Henry’s death has sprouted a discussion that everyone can be a part of because it strips away the football aspect of the game and reminds us that athletes’ long-term health is at risk.
Henry died last December when he fell out of the back of a truck and suffered serious head trauma. Despite the fact that he had no documented instances of concussions while at West Virginia or with the Bengals, recent reports state that he had suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, before his death. (In layman’s terms, he was dealing with brain damage even before he met his tragic end.)
According to doctors, symptoms of CTE can include failure at personal and business relationships, use of drugs and alcohol, depression and even suicide. Henry’s legal troubles over the years have been well documented and just recently, his mother claims that he suffered two concussions while playing high school football, which resulted in headaches. She also states that he started smoking marijuana right around the same time.
But just because Henry smoked pot doesn’t mean that it was because he had brain damage from playing football. He could have made a conscious decision to toke up, just as he could have made a conscious decision to conceal a firearm in January of 2006 (which led to an arrest), assault a valet attendant in Kentucky in 2007, as well as punch an 18-year-old boy while throwing a beer bottle through the window of his car in 2008.
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Report: Chris Henry had brain damage before he died
Posted by Anthony Stalter (06/28/2010 @ 12:30 pm)
According to a report by the Cincinnati Enquirer, former Bengals receiver Chris Henry suffered from a chronic brain injury that may have influenced his mental state and behavior before he died last year.
Bailes and fellow researchers believe chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is caused by multiple head impacts, regardless of whether those blows result in a concussion diagnosis. A number of studies, including one commissioned by the NFL, have found that retired professional football players may have a higher rate than normal of Alzheimer’s disease and other memory problems.
What’s interesting, Bailes said, is that Henry was only 26, and neither NFL nor WVU records show he was diagnosed with a concussion during his playing career.
CTE carries specific neurobehavioral symptoms, Bailies said — typically, failure at personal and business relationships, use of drugs and alcohol, depression and suicide.
Bailes said he and Omalu have now analyzed the brains of 27 modern athletes, and the majority showed evidence of CTE. But it’s found in only a small number of players, he said.
Whether Henry’s brain damage can be attributed to playing football or not, it’s vital that doctors continue to research ways to make the game safer. Football is a violent game and while the league has taken steps to improve the equipment that players wear, they should never be satisfied when it comes to protecting the athletes.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
The silver lining in Chris Henry’s death
Posted by John Paulsen (06/08/2010 @ 3:00 pm)
TMZ reports that Chris Henry donated several organs after his untimely death…
TMZ has obtained the NFL star’s autopsy report, which shows that the 26-year-old’s heart, lungs, liver, spleen, pancreas and kidneys were donated in the wake of his death on December 16, 2009.
When I was 20 years old, my father had a heart attack helping me move out of my college dorm. I frantically drove him to the town’s hospital using a map in the back of my phone book. Apparently, the clinic had just received the clot busting medicine that they used to save my dad’s life.
After a triple bypass that didn’t work, my dad was lucky enough to receive a heart transplant two years later. It was from an 18-year-old kid who died on his birthday. Because of that transplant, he lived until this past January, or an extra 14 years. He saw me win a national championship, he was at my wedding and he got to know his grandson.
So if you haven’t already become an organ donor, please take a moment to think about what Chris Henry did for those patients lucky enough to receive his organs and what that 18-year-old kid did for my father and my family.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Q&A with ESPN’s Mike Golic
Posted by Mike Farley (02/04/2010 @ 6:45 pm)

If you listen to ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike In the Morning,” you know that former NFL defensive lineman Mike Golic is one half of the equation and the counterpoint to long-time “Sportscenter” anchor Mike Greenberg. While both share a passion for sports, Golic takes the role of the “man’s man” and frequently discusses his passion for food and in particular, his love for grilling out. Well, lucky for us, Golic recently teamed up with Kingsford Charcoal to promote their new and improved briquets (and their new flavors of KC Masterpiece sauce and marinade), as well as with chef Chris Lilly, who owns Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q and is an award winning barbecue chef. So we’ve got some of their special recipes on our Grub For Guys page on Bullz-Eye.com, but we also had the opportunity to interview Golic about ESPN, grilling out, and of course, football:
The Scores Report: Hey Mike, we know you love to eat and love to grill. What is your favorite KC Masterpiece new flavor and why?
Mike Golic: I’m an original flavor kind of guy – no bells or whistles needed for me. But, I’ve tried the new KC Masterpiece Smoky Bourbon Barbecue Sauce and the smoky, sweet taste gives the original flavor some good competition for best sauce.
TSR: What are your thoughts on the new briquets, and do you use your grill year round?
MG: I have a fairly busy schedule with “Mike & Mike in the Morning,” ESPN analysis, and my family, but I definitely try to keep my grill fired up year-round whenever I have down-time. There is no better way to bring family and friends together than over the smokey flavors of a charcoal grill. In fact, when my boys where in high school, I used to travel to their football camps in early-August and grill for their entire teams during two-a-day workouts.
Kingsford MatchLight is my go-to charcoal – it has lighter fluid built into the briquet formula so it lights quickly and easily – which is especially convenient when I’m tailgating. I’ve heard that Kingsford briquets now light easier and faster, which I can also appreciate since I’m always crunched for time with my busy schedule.
TSR: Do you have any go-to items you like to grill for Super Bowl Sunday, or are you usually too busy working to cook that day?
MG: I will be working the whole week leading up to Super Bowl in Miami, but I’m excited to be able to go home and watch the actual game with my friends and family. But, while I’m in Miami, I will be firing up the grill with my buddy, world champion pitmaster, Chris Lilly earlier in the week. Chris has taught me quite a bit about grilling over the years and has inspired me to create a few tailgate recipes of my own. I will be demonstrating my BBQ Blitz Chicken Wraps for a few TV interviews with Chris before sharing a little tailgate with the lucky winner of the “On the Grill with Golic” sweepstakes that took place earlier this year. The recipe is attached in case your readers want to try it at home. For more great grilling recipes become a fan of Kingsford on Facebook at Facebook.com/KingsfordCharcoal.
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Posted in: Interviews, NFL
Tags: Arizona Cardinals, Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q, Brian Kelly, Cedric Benson, Chad Ochocinco, Charlie Weis, Chicago Bears, Chris Henry, Chris Lilly, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland, College Football, Connecticut, Dallas Cowboys, ESPN, ESPN Radio, football, Grand Valley State, Grub For Guys, Indianapolis Colts, Jay Cutler, KC Masterpiece, Kingsford Charcoal, Kingsford MatchLight, MAC, Matt Forte, Miami, Michigan, Mike and Mike in the Morning, Mike Golic, Mike Greenberg, Mike Zimmer, Notre Dame, South Bend, South Euclid, SportsCenter, Super Bowl
NFL Week 16 COY Power Rankings
Posted by Mike Farley (01/03/2010 @ 8:00 am)

Upsets galore and crazy outcomes have forced us to look a bit harder at the Coach of the Year rankings, but most of our contenders are hanging tough.
1. Jim Caldwell, Indianapolis Colts—The poor guy is still dodging proverbial rocks being thrown by Colts’ fans, who wanted their team to continue its pursuit of perfection instead of rolling over against the Jets. Being that the Colts were still in position to go to 15-0 when Caldwell did that, we have to cut him some slack and remember that his team is still the top seed in the AFC and would be in the NFC as well.
2. Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints—Payton surely did not want to back into the #1 seed in the NFC, but after losing two games in a row, his team did just that when the Vikings’ loss Monday night let the Saints snag the top position. And once again, we have to consider the entire season’s body of work.
3. Norv Turner, San Diego Chargers—When you consider that Turner’s Chargers always play lousy in September, only to win when it really matters, that’s far better than it being the other way around. It’s time we started to give Turner his due.
4. Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals—The Bengals are another team not playing well, but they have dealt with two tragedies this season—the death of player Chris Henry, and the passing of the wife of D-coordinator Mike Zimmer. And still, the Bengals are 10-5 with an AFC North title. Raise your hand if you expected that.
5. Brad Childress, Minnesota Vikings—Yes, the Vikings are floundering and in danger of losing the #2 seed to Philly or Dallas, but I’ll keep mentioning two players who Childress sought in the off-season that made this a championship caliber team—Brett Favre and Percy Harvin.
Honorable mention: Ken Whisenhunt, Cardinals; Mike McCarthy, Packers; Andy Reid, Eagles; Bill Belichick, Patriots; Rex Ryan, Jets; Wade Phillips, Cowboys; Josh McDaniels, Denver Broncos
Posted in: NFL
Tags: AFC, AFC North, Andy Reid, Arizona Cardinals, Bill Belichick, Brad Childress, Brett Favre, Chris Henry, Cincinnati Bengals, Coach of the Year power rankings, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, football, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, Jim Caldwell, Josh McDaniels, Ken Whisenhunt, Marvin Lewis, Mike McCarthy, Mike Zimmer, Minnesota Vikings, National Football League, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, NFC, NFL, NFL Coach of the Year, Norv Turner, Percy Harvin, Philadelphia Eagles, Rex Ryan, San Diego Chargers, Sean Payton, Wade Phillips
Chargers, Bengals heading in opposite directions
Posted by Anthony Stalter (12/20/2009 @ 9:44 pm)
Two playoff AFC playoff teams clashed on Sunday, but only one of them is heading in the right direction.
For the Bengals to have to deal with the death of Chris Henry and then have to travel cross-country to face a red-hot Chargers team was a tall task. But they did it, and they fought hard despite eventually falling 27-24 on Nate Kaeding’s last-second field goal.
That said, the Bengals have now lost two in a row and three of their last five. They haven’t looked sharp since their win against the Steelers in mid November, which isn’t good considering the playoffs are coming up in two weeks. And since their loss on Sunday was against San Diego, they now won’t have a first round bye.
San Diego, on the other hand, is scorching hot and has locked up the No. 2 seed in the AFC. Vincent Jackson came up huge with five receptions for 108 yards and two touchdowns in the win. He routinely beat Cincinnati’s excellent cornerback duo of Leon Hall and Jonathan Joseph and is really coming on of late as Philip River’s go to go on the outside.
It’s interesting how this season has unfolded for the Bolts. They were a lot of people’s preseason favorite to make an outside run at the Super Bowl, but when they struggled early on, many started to hop off the bandwagon. But now that they’ve rattled off nine in a row, people are breaking their ankles climbing back on their bandwagon.
Every team in the NFL has an opponent that is just a pain in the ass for them, and the Chargers are that team for the Colts. Indianapolis obviously looks incredible this year, but I wonder if Peyton Manning and company are getting a little uneasy with how good San Diego has looked over the past nine weeks.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Posted in: NFL
Tags: 2009 NFL Week 15, 2009 nfl week 15 scoreboard, Bengals vs. Chargers recap, Chargers beat Bengals, Chris Henry, Chris Henry death, Headlines, Indianapolis Colts, Nate Kaeding, Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers
Jets’ Feely taking heat over comments he made about Henry’s death
Posted by Anthony Stalter (12/18/2009 @ 5:00 pm)

Jets kicker Jay Feely is receiving criticism for comments he made on his Twitter page following the recent death of Bengals wideout Chris Henry.
From Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com:
In the moments following the announcement of the sad end of a sad life, New York Jets kicker Jay Feely, who has political aspirations, made some curious statements on Twitter.
“You hope that these tragic circumstances will wake people to the reality that our actions have real consequences,” Feely tweeted.
What the hell was Feely trying to say? It sounded condescending and, frankly, somewhat inappropriate. The news of Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry’s death was fresh (literally minutes old) and Feely — who on an earlier tweet did wish Henry’s family well — was nevertheless entering preachy mode in the immediate aftermath of a tragic accident.
Feely added this Tweet later: “Chris Henry seemed to have turned his life around. But, you can’t live on the brink of destruction without inevitably falling off the ledge.”
He made a reference to Henry falling off a ledge just a short time after Henry was killed while falling off the back of a moving vehicle.
No, not the best choice of Tweeting words.
And then Feely Tweeted: “younger generation needs to learn the lesson that our choices have implications and those implications often entail negative consequences.”
“Spoke from the heart. My cousin died a couple of weeks ago under similar circumstances. He was finally on right path…
“Terrible choice of words with ‘falling of ledge’ I truly didn’t mean to refer to his death. I apologized for the poor wording & callousness…
“I desired to implore people to help loved ones understand that choices create a path for our lives. It’s very hard to get off the wrong path.”
This is when people need to step back and look at someone’s intentions, rather than just what they said or wrote. Feely obviously didn’t mean any harm in what he said; he was just trying to advocate that people think about their actions and the consequences of those actions.
The problem is that Feely had horrible timing. He did wind up sounding condescending because he waited a millisecond after Henry died to get on his soapbox. He should have let the grieving process start before he started pointing out potential lessons that everyone could take away from Henry’s life.
In an ironic twist, Feely should have thought about his actions and the consequences of his actions before posting what he did on his Twitter page.
Posted in: NFL
Tags: 2009 NFL Week 15, Bengals receiver dies, Chris Henry, Chris Henry dead, Chris Henry death, Chris Henry dies, Jay Feely, Jay Feely Chris Henry, Jay Feely Chris Henry comments, Jay Feely Twitter, Jay Feely Twitter comments, Jets kicker
Bengals’ Chris Henry dies after falling from truck
Posted by Anthony Stalter (12/17/2009 @ 10:32 am)

In sad news, 26-year-old Bengals’ receiver Chris Henry died early Thursday morning after falling out of the back of a truck on Wednesday in a domestic dispute with his fiancee.
From USA Today:
He was involved in a domestic dispute on Wednesday with his fiance, Loleini Tonga. Henry jumped into the bed of a truck driven by Tonga and at one point fell out as the dispute continued.
His agent, Andy Simms, said Wednesday night that Henry was “battling for his life.”
A five-year veteran, Henry played eight games this season before suffering a broken arm that ended his year on Nov. 8.
Throughout his playing career, Henry was often in the news for all the wrong reasons. A string of arrests often made him the butt of jokes on blogs and at one time, it appeared that the troubled, yet talented receiver would never clean up his act.
But this past year, he did just that. He publicly credited Tonga for helping turn his life around and getting him focused on football again. In the summer, several of his Bengals teammates remarked that he was a changed player and that he was in store for big things this season. Unfortunately, an injury cost him most of his 2009 season but he had stopped getting into trouble, which was more important than what he did on the field.
My thoughts go out to Henry’s family.
Posted in: NFL
Tags: 2009 NFL Week 15, Bengals Chris Henry dies, Bengals receiver dies, Chris Henry, Chris Henry accident, Chris Henry Bengals, Chris Henry death, Chris Henry dies, Chris Henry passed away, Cincinnati Bengals, Headlines
Chris Henry suffers life-threatening injuries
Posted by Anthony Stalter (12/16/2009 @ 8:52 pm)
The Charlotte Observer is reporting that Bengals’ wideout Chris Henry suffered life-threatening injuries when he fell out of the back of a pickup truck in Charlotte on Wednesday.
Police say Henry was involved in a “domestic situation” with his fiancee at 840 Peachtree Road. His fiancee, who police haven’t named, got into a pickup truck and drove away from the home. As she was driving, police say, Henry jumped into the bed of the truck.
The domestic dispute continued between the woman and Henry. At some point, Henry “came out” of the back of the vehicle. Police refused to elaborate on whether Henry fell or might have been forced out of the truck.
A woman who answered the door and identified herself as the fiancee’s mother but declined to give her name said Henry and his fiancee had been staying at the house while he was on injured reserve and they were making plans for their wedding.
Henry has certainly had his fair share of off-field issues, but many of his Cincinnati teammates had said that he was starting to turn his life around.
Here’s hoping that he can pull through and have a full recover. My thoughts go out to him and his family.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Chris Henry, a sleeper no longer
Posted by John Paulsen (09/04/2009 @ 11:38 am)

Over the course of his tumultuous four-year career, Chris Henry has caught a TD every 5.6 passes. That’s a better ratio than Randy Moss (6.2), Terrell Owens (6.8) and Jerry Rice (7.3), in his 49er days. There has never been any doubt that the lanky 6’4″ Henry had all the tools to be a star, but he just couldn’t stay out of trouble.
According to ESPN, it was the NFL’s disciplinary policy that helped Henry see the light. He should know — he has been suspended for 14 games over the last three seasons.
“Yeah, it helped me,” Henry said, according to USA Today. “It helped me focus up, and it made me realize that if I continually wanted to play, I had to do right and be a professional.”
Since the Bengals drafted him in 2005 out of West Virginia, he’s faced charges of marijuana possession, carrying a concealed weapon, drunken driving, providing alcohol to minors and assault.
Through four preseason games, Henry has 14 catches for 224 yards and four TD. Even though he’s playing limited snaps, if he keeps that pace up, he’s on his way to a 56-catch, 896-yard, 16-TD season. Obviously, it’s tough to expect him to catch that many touchdowns, but double digits are certainly attainable given his TD-to-catch ratio. The receptions and yards are doable, and a 56-896-10 season would result in Top 20 fantasy numbers.
There are a few things standing in Henry’s way: 1) Chad Ochocinco, who is hell bent on having a bounce-back year, 2) Laveranues Coles, who still has enough ability to earn snaps by catching all the underneath stuff, and 3) Henry’s own demons, who may resurface at any time.
Still, with the departure of T.J. Houshmandzadeh and the (possible) decline of Ochocinco, the Bengals’ WR pecking order is as fluid now as it’s ever been, and if the immensely talented Henry has truly turned over a new leaf, he has the chance to break out in a big way.
From a fantasy perspective, it’s hard not to like this guy in the late-middle rounds. In my drafts, it seems like he’s the best WR on the board as early as the 8th or 9th in some cases, but owners can usually wait a bit longer to pull the trigger.
But don’t wait too long.
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