Wasted Talent

I had to digest this entire story before I could write anything. Yesterday, some friends of mine sent me the story about Travis Henry. As we all know, Henry was arrested yesterday by the DEA, along with a friend, James Mack, for allegedly being the money man behind a cocaine ring. This had been an ongoing investigation since September 16th. A man driving a black Impala on Highway 90 in Montana was pulled over and after a search of the car, a duffel bag with 3 pounds of weed and 6+ pounds of cocaine were found. The guy pulled a Nick Kaczur on Mack and Henry and turned informant.

Supposedly, the DEA has Henry and Mack on tape discussing the deal with the informant. They also have someone who is saying that Henry made death threats against one of his accomplices over $40K, 'they all would be dead' if he didn't get that money back.

None of this looks good for Henry. He has had a troubled past due to drugs and suspensions from the league (presently serving a year long suspension), and was cut last year from the Broncos, one year into his 5 year, $22.5M deal. Add on to all of this the fact that he has 9 kids by 9 different women, and it's just sad. I wanted to add this to Stupid Athlete Tricks, but there's got to be a part of you that feels sorry for this guy. Not a big part, because he chose to get involved with drugs (using), he chose to not protect himself with his women, and he chose to make some quick money by being a financier off drug deals.

Henry looks to spend the rest of his adult life in the pen if he's convicted of all the counts that they are going to throw at him. The guy had the talent to succeed but couldn't keep his head straight. He was drafted in 2001 by the Bills and quickly (in 4 years) became the fourth leading rusher in Bills history with 3,849 yards and 27 TDs. He still holds records at Tennessee (yards rushing, rushing attempts, and 100 yard games). It looks like Henry has taken all of this talent and wasted it.