Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry has died of injuries he suffered yesterday when he fell from a truck being driven by his fiancee.
Details of the actual incident are still unclear, but police have made the basics known, starting with Henry and his fiancee having a “domestic situation” at her parents’ home near Charlotte, North Carolina:
His fiancee got into a pickup truck and drove away from the residence. As she was driving away Mr. Henry jumped into the bed of the truck. The domestic situation continued between the operator and Mr. Henry. At some point while she was driving, Mr. Henry came out of the back of the vehicle.
Henry somehow “came out of” the truck near a curve about a half-mile away. His head injuries were described last night as grave, and he died at 6:26 this morning.
Henry was away from the team in North Carolina because he was out of action for the rest of the season after breaking his left arm in a game on November 8th.
Henry had a crazy, troubled past with the Bengals. He joined the team in 2005 as a super-speedy receiver. He was a hit on the field but a terror off of it; by 2007 he had been arrested five different times on gun charges, for marijuana possession, for providing liquor to underage women in a hotel room, etc. In 2008 a local judge called Henry “a one-man crime wave.”
His career looked over, but then Bengals owner Mike Brown gave Henry one more One Last Chance. He’d looked very good this year and seemed like he might even become a feel-good story.
Chick Ludwig of Cincinnati.com has a few thoughts. Or see the Enquirer sports page.