RENTON, Wash. (AP) -T.J. Houshmandzadeh finished practicing – then sighed.
“Long day,” the Seahawks’ top wide receiver said. “Long 24 hours.”
Houshmandzadeh returned to his team a couple of hours before practice Wednesday morning, after a boomerang trip to Louisiana to attend Tuesday’s funeral of former Cincinnati Bengals teammate Chris Henry. He got permission from Seattle coach Jim Mora to miss a rare Tuesday practice to join his former Bengals in suburban New Orleans.
Henry, 26, was killed after he fell out of the bed of pickup truck driven by his fiancee, Loleini Tonga, during what police called a domestic dispute.
The 32-year-old Houshmandzadeh felt almost like a big brother to Henry while they were teammates from 2005-08. He said everyone liked Henry and called his friend’s death “unbelievable.”
ngals, who chartered a full plane from Cincinnati to honor the receiver they called ‘Slim.’
Houshmandzadeh greeted NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at the service. Other NFL players attended, including New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush. Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, whom Houshmandzadeh still contacts regularly, joined Cincinnati coach head coach Marvin Lewis in delivering eulogies.
“I thought Carson did a great job when he got up and spoke,” Houshmandzadeh said.
Palmer made some chuckle as he remembered Henry’s friendly demeanor.
“He walked past my locker every day to shake my hand as I said, ‘Good morning,’ and every day he said, ‘What’s up, cuz,”’ Palmer said. “We’ve all seen and experienced different sides of Chris, and with every side he showed us, we saw just how kind and gentle his heart was.”
Houshmandzadeh was supposed to return to Seattle by 10 p.m. Tuesday. He called Mora while he was aboard a plane on a runway in Chicago and informed his coach he wouldn’t be arriving until the morning because of travel delays. He arrived at 5 a.m., took a two-hour nap at home, and made his scheduled meetings and then the practice that started at 11:25 a.m.
.
“You know, it’s interesting. In talking to him last night on the phone (he) made the comment, ‘I’m really a pretty unemotional guy’ – and that’s true – ‘but I was really affected today.’ I saw a guy last week who, you could tell that it was affecting him, but he’s a professional,” Mora said. “When it’s time to do the job that he’s paid to do, he did it.
“He said that the service for Chris Henry was very moving, and he’s very glad he went. Obviously (he has) mixed emotions about it, but he said he was really glad he was there.”
Add A Comment