If there’s truly a shocking part of an active NFL player’s death it’s that it doesn’t happen more often. As violent a sport as professional football is, deaths on the field are extremely rare. In fact, only two players in the history of the league died from injuries suffered during a game. New York Titans guard Howard Glenn died from a neck injury in a game in 1960. Stone Johnson, a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, died from a neck injury in a game in 1963.
One other player died during a game since, Chuck Hughes, a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, but he passed away due to a heart attack suffered during a game in 1971. Since then, the football field has been a safer place for players than their own personal lives.
Tray Walker was a 23-year-old cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens. A fourth-round pick out of Texas Southern, Walker was a talented kid, 6-foot-2 and 199 pounds and appeared in eight games for the Ravens in 2015. On a team desperate to develop defensive back talent, Walker’s size and frame made him an intriguing prospect, one who had a nice future ahead of him in Baltimore.
Ravens players, coaches & front office members share their memories of Tray Walker: https://t.co/q1BIw3AQhJ pic.twitter.com/Yu6wknCyXT
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) March 20, 2016
Friday Walker, wearing dark clothing, no helmet and driving a motorcylce without a headlight, collided with an SUV at an intersection in Liberty City, Fla. at around 7:50 p.m. He was taken to a nearby hospital and died the next day.
“Tray was a young man with a good and kind heart,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in a statement. “He was humble and loved everything about being part of the Ravens’ team. He loved his teammates, the practice and the preparation, and that showed every day. He was coachable, did his most to improve and worked to become the best. I’ll never forget that smile. He always seemed to be next to me during the national anthem; then we would give each other a big hug. May he rest in the Peace of Christ Jesus forever.”
The candles are laid out in Tray Walker's initials. A @Ravens cap & football are placed in the center. pic.twitter.com/HxbsBNpKA7
— Liane Morejon (@LianeMorejonTV) March 19, 2016
It’s a tough moment for Harbaugh and the entire NFL. Obviously Walker made some mistakes last Friday, but nothing criminal and nothing that a thousand young men do every single day in America. You can’t shake your head at it and talk about the “culture” of anything, as pundits want to do. This was an accident. It happens. It doesn’t make it any easier.
What we should be thinking about is how Walker didn’t have to be the only active-player death this season. We could have had at least two more and, unlike Walker, one of those was a near-tragedy that could have been completely avoided.
Just two weeks ago Los Angeles Rams running back Tre Mason had to be subdued with a taser after resisting arrest in Hollywood, Fla. He was arrested on suspicion of possession of reckless driving, failure to register a motor vehicle and resisting arrest. These kinds of things don’t always end with a taser for young black men in America. Mason was lucky.
https://twitter.com/SocNBirmingham/status/707467590168354817
Mason’s teammate Stedman Bailey was not so fortunate. Bailey was shot in the head twice in a drive-by in Miami Gardens, Fla.. Bailey survived and is working hard to return to the NFL.
Last July Arizona Cardinals running back Chris Johnson was shot in a drive-by too, this time in Orlando, Fla. He still has the bullet inside his shoulder, but he made a comeback this last season and just recently re-signed with the Cardinals. In both Johnson and Bailey’s cases, they were innocent victims. And very lucky.
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Adrian Robinson was a victim too last offseason, hanging himself in May right after signing a free agent deal with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the CFL.
Suicide has claimed more active players than anything over the last six years in the NFL. In addition to Robinson, Denver Broncos wide receiver Kenny McKinley killed himself in 2010. O.J. Murdock, a wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans, committed suicide in 2012 and that same year Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot himself in the head in the parking lot of Arrowhead Stadium in front of then general manager Scott Pioli after murdering his girlfriend.
Walker’s death was tragic and strange, not only that it happened to a young man in the prime of his life, but that it was just that, an accident. When you look at the all-too long list of active player deaths in recent NFL history, that’s the rarest thing of all.
Thoughts and prayers go out to Tray Walker's family friends & teammates including entire @Ravens organization pic.twitter.com/T0xtkQfNbb
— Solomon Wilcots (@SolomonsWisdom) March 19, 2016
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