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.
