Aqib Talib, star cornerback for the Denver Broncos, was shot in the leg Sunday morning in Dallas, Texas.
The team put out an announcement Sunday evening.
“We’ve spoken with Aqib Talib, who is being treated at a Dallas hospital for a gunshot woulnd to his leg,” the team said in a tweet, of all things. “He’s OK and we’re gathering more info.”
We've spoken with Aqib Talib, who is being treated at a Dallas hospital for a gunshot wound to his leg. He's OK & we're gathering more info.
— Patrick Smyth (@psmyth12) June 5, 2016
According to the Dallas Morning News Talib and another person was shot during an altercation at the V Live strip club in Stemmons Corridor. An unknown assailant shot Talib and another man, one inside the club and one outside. There could have been more people involved according to the paper.
This isn’t the first gun-related incident for Talib at a Dallas strip club. Last year he and his brother got in a fight with a man and all three were thrown out. As they were, one of them, and no one will say who, fired a gun into the air.
Shootings involving NFL players are becoming an all-too common event over recent years. Just a month and half ago former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith was shot eight times and his wife Racquel shot in the leg twice in what was being called a “road rage incident” in the lower district of New Orleans.
Last November Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey was shot twice in the head in South Florida in a drive-by shooting. Bailey survived and is working on coming back to the team. The man with Bailey, his cousin Antwan Reeves, was shot 11 times and also survived.
Recently in an interview with CBS sports, Bailey talked of the shooting.
“Gun violence is a very big issue in today’s society,” Bailey said. “I mean, I’ve always been big on trying to give back or do something that can help change the lives of our youth that’s coming up. With me growing up in Miami Gardens, I’ve seen a lot of gun violence. I watch the news all the time and see this occurring issue. It’s always happening each and every day.”
Last offseason Arizona Cardinals running back Chris Johnson was shot in a drive-by himself in Florida in March, 2015. Johnson took a bullet in the shoulder and the man he was with, Dreekus Oricko Johnson, died in the the shooting.
“It was a life-changing experience,” Johnson said a few months later. “It showed you how to enjoy life and how to enjoy every day waking up. Because just as easily as it was one of my best friends that was sitting right next to me, the one that got killed, it easily could have been me. So these days, I’m just enjoying life and making sure I enjoy each day.”
After numerous run-ins involving trouble and guns, it seems something like this might have been inevitable for Talib, one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL. In addition to the gunshot in the air incident last year, Talib was also arrested in 2011 and accused of firing a gun at his sister’s boyfriend during an argument. In 2009 Talib was arrested for punching a taxi driver in St. Petersberg, Fla.
It’s not just been the law Talib has had trouble with. He was suspended one game last season for trying to poke an Indianapolis Colts player in the eye. He also missed four games in 2012 for testing positive for Adderall without a prescription.
Other than the finger-poking, Talib has been a great player for the Broncos, leaving most of his on-the-field troubles behind him after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dealt him to the New England Patriots in 2012. Talib has made the Pro Bowl three times.
The Broncos are scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama next week as part of their Super Bowl celebration. Talib’s injury will probably keep him from attending. It’s hard to pass judgement when drunk men with guns get in fights at strip clubs, but it seems to me with Talib’s history, and now a bullet hole in his leg, maybe it’s time to think about a lifestyle change.
