NFL players are used to playing through physical pain. Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley, however, played through a different type of pain on Sunday, two days after his brother Jabari was shot and killed in Los Angeles.
In his first game after the death of his brother, Henley recorded seven tackles, a pass deflection and one sack to help lead the Chargers to a 27-20 win at the Tennessee Titans.
After the game, Henley said he never considered sitting out Sunday’s game following Friday’s shooting.
“I had a lot of pain, man, a lot of pain,” Henley told reporters after the game. “I just wanted to go out there and just let it out, whatever I had to get out.
“As sad as it is, and as traumatizing as all this is, I got a job to do. For me, it was coming out here and handling a job first and then being emotional after, and everything hit me pretty hard,” he added.
Henley learned the news that Jabari had died after he woke up to loud bangs on his hotel room door on Saturday morning. Teammate Denzel Perryman was waiting outside the door and told Henley he needed to call his mother immediately, ESPN reports.
“Being transparent, I dropped to my knees,” Henley said.
Jabari was shot just after 11 p.m. in South Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times. The fatal shooting occurred when Jabari approached a vehicle and the suspects inside shot him before fleeing the scene. He was pronounced dead at the scene by firefighters.
There is no description of the suspects, according to LAPD spokesperson Norma Eisenman.
After recording a sack on Titans’ quarterback Cam Ward on Sunday – just his fourth career sack – Henley again dropped to his knees, but this time in prayer.
“I just wanted to talk to my brother one more time,” Henley said. “It was an emotional moment for me, just to be able to make a play on a day like this — just losing him so soon. It’s been a long year for me, so I just sent a prayer up and hopefully he heard it. I just went out there.”
Earlier this year, Henley’s father Eugene “Big U” Henley, was indicted on 43 counts of running a criminal enterprise, including racketeering crimes, extortion, fraud, human trafficking and more. He has denied all accusations against him. He is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA, according to The Times.
“It’s probably been the worst year of my life, to be quite honest with you,” Daiyan Henley said.
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