A friend of mine called me a few days ago. He was sad when he heard about the death of Chris Henry, the football player who died a few days ago in a domestic dispute with the mother of his three children. People don't like to speak ill of the dead so I can understand his concern, as well as those of bloggers. Some people who are saying nice things about Henry never heard of him until they had heard he had died.The main point of the nice comments has been that Henry had been trying to turn his life around.
Here's the part of the story that adds some context. It is from a 911 call by a woman who was following the truck Henry was on shortly before he expired:
"It's got a black man on it with no shirt on, and he's got his arm in a cast and black pants on," she told a dispatcher. "He's beating on the back of this truck window. ... I don't know if he's trying to break in or something. It just looks crazy. It's a girl driving it."If Henry had not been arrested five times or been suspended by the NFL for half a season (which is known for being lenient with players) then I might be more sympathetic. Henry, who was called a "one-man crime wave" by a judge, crashed to reality a few days ago.
Kids often look up to athletes as role models. With that in mind, I'd like to suggest a few lessons to be learned from Henry's case:
1) You should not try to resolve your domestic problems with violence. After all, your fiancee may keep driving. You may fall off the back of the truck and hit your head on the ground. A better strategy when your fiancee is driving off in the truck? Wave at the truck, and say a cute rhyme, such as, "goodbye truck, goodbye fiancee, I'll live another day."
2) Stories about turning your life around should not include a report that you are beating on the back of a truck being driven by your fiancee. It undercuts your credibility.
3) A lot of women are bad drivers so you should not beat on the back of a truck as a woman is driving. If she doesn't want you in the truck then get a ride with a different woman.
4) On the bright side, if you at least say you were turning your life around there will always be people to defend you.
CJL