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Senseless violence ends with senseless death
By Jeremy Johnson
jjohn308@mscd.edu

Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams is dead at the age of 24. The electric and oft-eccentric second-year player was gunned down just hours into the New Year. It was the first news I heard upon waking New Year’s Day.

I, like so many others, immediately sought answers to the tragedy. Why did it happen? Where? When, exactly? Who did this awful thing and for what reason? But there were no answers, only nonsense, numb responses from family, players and coaches, and cheap conspiracy theories from the public.

Photo by Heather A. Longway-Burke • longway@mscd.edu Mary Mandujano writes a message at Darrent Williams memorial, which she attended with her husband and three sons Jan. 6 at 11th Avenue and Speer Boulevard

Later that night at a local pub, I listened to some of the conspiracy theories as people discussed the Broncos game, Williams’ performance and any possible reason for a hit on the local athlete. I thought back to Andres Escobar, the Colombian soccer star who was shot and killed just days after scoring a goal in the 1994 World Cup that cost the Colombians a world title.

People were angry and saddened, as they should have been. An old friend of mine, a biker and mechanic the size of a defensive lineman, had just found out, and his eyes swelled up with tears.

“What a sad thing to have happen,” said a woman next to me. “I just hope that we, in the United States of America, haven’t gotten to a point where we shoot each other over a football game.” She was decked from head to toe in Broncos gear.

The sad part is the shooting wasn’t about football at all. I am in no way condoning the dangerous world of sports gambling, nor am I condoning violent reactions to athletes’ mistakes. But cases like the more than 10-year-old Escobar murder made it all too clear to the world that one of an athlete’s many obstacles in life and in sports includes low life mobsters who profit heavily off professional sports and threaten all those that stand in their way.

Alas, it seems there is no conspiracy theory that includes the mob in the Williams case. Williams played a relatively good game against San Francisco, and any number of other factors could have been blamed for the Broncos’ futility that day.

No, in the end, it wasn’t mobsters but only wannabe gangsters, thugs with something to prove. Perhaps something was said at the club that night between some strangers and the saddened athlete. Perhaps, pondering his lost season and his team’s lost opportunity, Williams dismissed some punk in a way that hurt his already fragile and weak ego.

Perhaps that same thug responded in the only way he knew how – with senseless rage.

The worst part is that Williams was another tragic addition to an alarming trend of athlete shootings in metropolitan Denver, a trend that has included Denver Nuggets guard Julius Hodge and Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter.

Even though we look up to athletes as a sort of city royalty, Denver’s kings of sport are more accessible than most.

Having worked in the service industry of downtown Denver for nearly all of my 10 years here, it is common to see athletes rubbing elbows with fans at bars, nightclubs and restaurants.
Athlete or not, the whole incident brought attention to the mindless violence that is plaguing Denver.

I, for one, wouldn’t be surprised if athletes become more and more distant from their communities because of it.

Those that maintain a relationship with their community are likely to be increasingly skeptical of all fans.

As a plethora of athlete interviews and ESPN documentaries have revealed, many athletes are now armed for just such occasions.

Williams seemed like a really good guy. He had a wife and children. He had spirit and a sense of humor coupled with the desire and determination to win. Williams, it seems, lived life deeply and with purpose.

French author Anais Nin once wrote: “People living deeply have no fear of death.”

It must be hard to live deeply and without fear of death when the toll of celebrity alone can carry a death sentence.