Chris Henry

I have posted on my Twitter account a couple of sarcastic comments about Tiger Woods, but for the most part I've been ignoring the entire matter. I'm completely disinterested. I can't say the same thing, though, about the recent death of Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry. I feel very, very sad about his death.

I'm not sure what the difference is. At first I thought it might be just that because I followed the NFL more than I followed the PGA, I was just naturally more interested. And it's true that I wasn't a HUGE follower of Tiger Woods. Heck, I didn't even know that he WAS married (and didn't care, frankly) until I found out about his infidelities. But I don't think that's it. After all, I did know SOMETHING about Tiger Woods. Though I wasn't a huge PGA follower, I did watch golf occasionally. I remember watching at Lisa's dad's house the day he first won the Masters, when he kept building a larger and larger lead until he seemed almost superhuman. And I've watched him a number of times since then, the last time being earlier this year when he lost to a little known Korean golfer in the PGA Championship. So I'd followed him a little bit. And yet I didn't really care about any of his problems.

But I DID care about Chris Henry. I was stunned to hear of his accident yesterday morning, and I checked the Internet a couple of different times at work to see what his status was. I was sad to hear he'd died, and as I drove to lunch I listened to the press conference that the Bengals were giving about him.

Maybe my concern was because he was a local guy. He lived in Northern Kentucky, and he'd been arrested a few times in Northern Kentucky, too. Lisa actually ran into him at a burger joint in Latonia a few months ago. She went in to get some food and there he was, the only other customer in the place. She said he seemed extremely shy and not at all like some monster celebrity.

I think Lisa hit it on the head yesterday, though, when she said that the difference between the two is that Tiger Woods always came off as perfect, untouchable, or--as I said above--a superman. "Super" is Latin for "above," of course, and when you are a creature ABOVE man, as Tiger Woods seemed, it's hard for me to feel any connection to you. Sure, Tiger Woods winced in pain when he had his injury for the last year, and he'd pump his fist in excitement when he made an important shot, but mostly he tried to portray himself as this perfect, untouchable figure. So I don't really care about HIM. If I'm watching recent new stories about him at all, it's because a small part of me wants to live that lifestyle vicariously through reports about him. That's all. I don't care about Tiger.

But Chris Henry was a different story. There are a lot of words that might be applied to Henry's life, but "perfect" would never have been one of them. He was an extremely talented athelete, but he also had a VERY troubled life. He'd been arrested multiple times, and he'd even gotten suspended by the NFL for 6 months and fired by his team. He was a human, a relatable human, who excelled at some things in life and stunk at other things.

But he seemed to be turning his life around. Since rejoining the Bengals for the last two seasons, he'd managed to stay out of trouble. And prior to his season-ending injury back in November, he seemed to be doing very well both personally and professionally. And I was excited for him. I'd been upset with the Bengals for taking him back at the start of the 2008 season, sure they'd made a mistake, that he couldn't be reformed. But I'd enjoyed the fact that I appeared to be wrong.

When he got injured, though, I worried that he might slip up, that not having the rigid schedule of the NFL might hurt him. I don't know it that was the case or not, but I've been thinking about him and praying for him since he was lost for the season. That's not something that I did for Tiger Woods. I did it for Chris Henry because he seemed so human to me.

Maybe, it seems now, too human.