Chris Henry Dies at 26

Redemption stories are the best kinds of stories. If someone's failed, lost their way or made more mistakes than we deem acceptable, I always find myself on that guy's side.
I'm not there supporting what they've done or making excuses for them, but hoping that they'll find a way to be better. Hoping that they'll learn from their mistakes, grow and become the person they can be. In one way or another, I think we're all striving for that.

That's what Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was doing when he lost his life this morning after falling out of a truck reportedly driven by his fiancee.
We know the guy had made mistakes, getting arrested multiple times and being suspended for half of the 2007 season, but those aren't important today. That was Henry's past. By all accounts, his future was better and brighter, because he had worked his tail off to make it that way. Changing your life is not easy.
Henry was doing it, though. In the preseason, his quarterback, Carson Palmer(notes), had raved about Henry's work ethic and his ability. According to Palmer, Henry had a great offseason and had "really turned his life around." Unfortunately, his season was cut short by injury when he broke his forearm against the Ravens on November 8.
He was 26 when he lost his life this morning. Just 26 years old. For as many headlines as he had made, it seemed like he should be older. The fact was, though, that he was still a very young man. He was just entering his football prime, and considering his natural gifts and the signs he had been showing before being put on injured reserve this year, he could have gone on to have a great, great career.
That's the tragedy here. It's not that we'll miss out on seeing a man who could have been a brilliant player, it's that someone who had once been so far down the wrong path could have come back. He was on his way. If things had continued to go the way they were headed, Chris Henry could have one day stood in front of the world as an example that no matter what you've done in the past, that your future can be better. He could have told the at-risk youth of the world, "Yes, it can be difficult to change the direction of your life, but it can be done, and you have the power to do it. I did it, and you can do it."
What a great thing that could've been for the world to have. Too many times, a gifted person comes along, and we automatically make them a role model. Inevitably, they end up doing something to let us down. The truth is, though, that those were never the role models we needed. The role models we need are the people who let us down first, and then show the strength and character to fight back from that.
Sooner or later, we're all going to let somebody down. We're all going to screw up. But life is about how you come back from it, how you learn from it and how you use it to make yourself a better, stronger person.
Chris Henry was becoming that guy. And we could have used that.

via: yahoo