Third young NFL player dies at age 24
Friends at the scene told the Boston Herald that Hill died a hero, helping a former high school classmate, 17, who could not swim to safety, before he himself met his own death in the water. Hill was described as a good swimmer, but even his strength as an NFL lineman was no match for the sharp, swirling currents near the south shore, where a shipping canal runs into the lake and the depths reach 80 feet.
Friends of Hill described him as a “hero until the end.” Hill is remembered for having spent most of his free time and his own money towards efforts to rebuild his hurricane-stricken hometown of New Orleans. His acts of charity were many. Two years ago, for instance, he built a wheelchair ramp at the home of 60-year-old multiple sclerosis victim Barbara Jones, who remembered Hill as a “very sweet, individual” who was “happy to do anything that would help somebody.”
“He thought of others first,” Hill’s cousin Elaine Blackshire told the Herald. “He was just that kind of person.”
Also that kind of person was Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams, another young NFL player whose life also came to an abrupt end at age 24. Williams was gunned down in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in a stretch limousine, the victim of a senseless gang shooting that occurred just a block away from a trauma center at one of Denver’s largest hospitals. Williams was a lovable figure and a colorful personality who always had a smile on his face. He was remembered in the Denver community and his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, as a light that was extinguished from this earth much, much too soon.
Tragedy struck the Broncos again in February when backup running back Damien Nash, also 24, collapsed and died after a charity basketball game, due to unknown causes.
For these young men, not even the gifts of their youth, strength or athleticism served to protect them from the mortality that makes us merely human after all. It gives us pause to reflect about how trivial those Sunday afternoon games really are, in the grand scheme of things. Still, the joy that the players give their fans each Sunday afternoon is important, make no mistake about it. It’s impossible to try to make sense of how these young men, whose own kindness and generosity helped to improve the fortune of others, met such misfortune to end their own lives.
In an age when player misconduct always plays in the headlines, no drugs or alcohol played a part in any of these deaths. The 6-foot-6, 300-pound Hill was heralded as one of Louisiana’s all-time greatest high school football players. There was tremendous excitement and promise in the young NFL career of starting cornerback Williams, who played on the opposite side of one of the NFL’s greatest defensive players, Champ Bailey.
The Williams murder investigation is ongoing. If Williams’ death served any purpose, it was a wake-up call for the city of Denver to deal with its gang problem — despite the efforts of city leaders to repeatedly ignore it. Other deaths that had been attributable to gang violence in the city remained off-stage; Williams’ shooting brought attention — and law enforcement response — to the gang issue. Local and federal law enforcement agencies recently completed a roundup in which 50 suspected gang members were arrested and currently await possible federal indictments for gang-related activity and drug trafficking. Although authorities declined to make a direct connection with the arrests and the Williams case, one of the suspects, Brian Hicks, is suspected in the fatal shooting that took Williams’ life on a New Year’s that the city of Denver will never forget.
