Like any other red-blooded Steelers fan, I hate the Cincinnati Bengals. However, I’ll take a pause from that hate to mourn with the team for wide receiver Chris Henry, who died this morning after a bizarre accident here in Charlotte.
It seems that Henry got into an argument with his fiancee, and the woman tried to leave in a pickup truck. Henry then jumped into the bed of the truck as she sped away, only to fall out a short while later, suffering severe injuries. According to a spokesperson for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, Henry died at 6:36 a.m. Thursday morning. He was 26.
Henry was one of the most troubled players in the NFL, with a history of off-field troubles that reaches back to his college days at West Virginia, where he was ejected from one game and suspended for another by coach Rich Rodriguez, who called him an “embarrassment” to the team. In 2005, Henry was arrested for marijuana possession early in the season and a gun charge after the Bengals lost to the Steelers in the playoffs. In 2007, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Henry for half a season for violating the league’s conduct policy. After his fifth arrest in that same year, he was released by the Bengals, only to be given a second change with the team in 2008.
Henry had decent seasons in 2008 and 2009, but broke his forearm in a game against the Baltimore Ravens on November 8th.
He was in town visiting his fiancee’s parents, who live in the Queen City.