Eventually, maybe as soon as this week, the Broncos will have to move on without Darrent Williams.
Once the hurt and anger subside, questions are answered, the tears dry, and justice hopefully is served, the Broncos will not only have to free their grip on Williams’ boundless energy and jovial spirit, but replace his mortal being at right cornerback.
“Sometime later down the line, they’re going to have their hands full,” said former Broncos defensive end Alfred Williams. “Whoever winds up at that position isn’t going to be the guy opposite Champ Bailey, anymore. It’s going to be the guy who lined up at Darrent Williams’ position.”
Besides Domonique Foxworth, the player most likely to fill the position, how will the heinous crime that caused Williams’ death impact the Broncos?
As a personality, Williams might have been one of a kind but, alas, he was not the first active professional athlete to have reached an unexpected death. About the only conclusive trend history offers is that when an athlete meets a tragic death, a team can go either way.
“The advantage the Broncos will have is since they are done with their season, they will not be looking at having to perform at a high level while simultaneously going through a grieving period,” said Dr. Louis Csoka, a noted sports psychologist who heads APEX Performance in Charlotte, N.C.
Two of the most inspiring stories of team resiliency occurred at the collegiate level with the passing of University of Colorado quarterback Sal Aunese in 1989 and Loyola Marymount basketball player Hank Gathers in 1990.
Other teams were deflated emotionally and physically from tragedy. The Boston Celtics reeled from the death of their top draft pick Len Bias in 1986, then from the fatal collapse of Reggie Lewis in 1993. The Kansas City Chiefs were seemingly negatively affected by the drowning of running back Joe Delaney in 1983 and linebacker Derrick Thomas in 2000.
The 2001 training camp death of offensive tackle Korey Stringer was one reason the Minnesota Vikings followed their previous season’s NFC championship game appearance with a 5-11 disappointment.
“You can’t intellectualize this. You can’t quantify the impact of a teammate being taken so suddenly,” said Nick Lowery, a former Chiefs kicker who was a teammate of Delaney and Thomas and now hosts a sports psychology-based program “Headgames” on Sirius Satellite Radio. “But if the players take ownership and dedicate the season – not because the coach says to but because they truly believe it – then it can end up becoming very significant.”
St. Louis Cardinals and former Rockies pitcher Darryl Kile dies in his sleep, June 22, 2002.
The Cardinals initially staggered from Kile’s death, losing their first two games after their ace succumbed to heart disease. Relief pitcher Dave Veres, who was Kile’s teammate in Colorado and St. Louis, said that looking back, the Cards should have taken a day or two to collect themselves before playing.
“The first three or four games you could tell we were going through the motions,” Veres said. “No one wanted to be there. But I know what helped me a ton, and I know it helped our team, was when we had the memorial service for Darryl at (Busch Stadium). For me, it was a way to say goodbye. That was when I was able to kind of let him go and move on. Not forget, but move on.”
So that’s why one of this nation’s most honored customs is the funeral. After Kile’s service, which was conducted by Rockies and Broncos team chaplain Bill Radar, the Cardinals went on to win their division and advance to the National League Championship Series.
The Broncos players had two chances last week to find closure in Williams’ death – a team-only memorial service Wednesday at Dove Valley, and the funeral Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas.
“I think it’s great there’s not one, but two memorial services,” Csoka said. “Most people, when they’re grieving, really want to be with other people. It is not psychologically healthy to grieve by yourself.”
Chiefs running back Joe Delaney drowns, 1983.
Not to seem callous, but one way to explain why the CU Buffs drew inspiration from Aunese while the Chiefs struggled to recover from Delaney was their replacements. Aunese’s job was filled by Darian Hagan. Delaney?
“One of the things that was so difficult with Joe Delaney’s loss was we had no one even closely available to do what he had done,” Chiefs coach John Mackovic said then. “Our offense was going to be built around Joe Delaney.”
After rushing for 1,121 yards and making the Pro Bowl as a rookie, Delaney endured the strike season of 1982 before making his heroic and fatal attempt to rescue three drowning boys a month before the opening of training camp in 1983.
While Chiefs quarterback Bill Kenney passed for more than 4,300 yards in 1983, Billy Jackson was the team’s leading rusher with 499 yards and Kansas City finished 6-10.
Although the New York Yankees initially fared well in the regular season after losing their catcher and No. 3 hitter Thurman Munson in an August 1979 plane crash, the storied franchise endured an unprecedented 18-year World Series championship drought.
Besides his talents as a player, Munson was the Yankees’ captain and one of baseball’s all-time tough guys. Williams was fearless in body, jovial in personality.
“Right now, the Bronco guys are going through their personal reflections they have of Darrent,” said Goose Gossage, the Yankees’ closer in 1979. “Different things that happened with them in the locker room, the kidding and the joking and the camaraderie each individual that came in contact with Darrent. I’m sure they’ll dedicate the season to him.”
Hank Gathers dies after collapsing during a game, March 4, 1990.
Perhaps no story better exemplified the human condition’s ability to rally from tragedy better than Bo Kimble and the Loyola Marymount basketball team. Even if the team had Gathers, the nation’s leading scorer, little-regarded Loyola Marymount would have been considered a longshot to advance past the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
When Gathers collapsed during a game just before the tournament and was pronounced dead later that night at a hospital, Loyola Maryland seemed destined for immediate elimination.
Gathers’ death somehow elevated his teammates’ play, none more so than Kimble, who in each of his four NCAA Tournament games, shot his first free throw left-handed in honor of his fallen, southpaw-shooting pal. Kimble made all four and Loyola Marymount reached the Elite Eight.
There is no complete match between the circumstances surrounding Williams’ death of those of other athletes. Like Delaney, Williams was taken from this earth after his second NFL season. But Delaney’s death was accidental while Williams was murdered by a gunshot wound.
California Angels outfielder Lyman Bostock was shot and killed late in the 1978 baseball season. But Bostock was already an established all-star while Williams had yet to reach his full potential.
The timing of Williams’ death more closely resembled the fatal plane crash of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle in that it occurred almost immediately after their team’s respective seasons had concluded. But Lidle, who died Oct. 11, 2006, had only been with the Yankees a few months, while Williams had already become well-established in the Broncos’ family.
“Every team needs somebody to energize them,” Alfred Williams said. “Every team needs people to calm them down. Every team. High school, college, NFL. Darrent Williams is one of those players who gave them spirit.”
The Broncos must now find a way to replace Darrent Williams in spirit and body. They are unlikely to find an identical substitute for either. But the challenge for the Broncos is to assimilate the post-death magic the CU Buffs found when Aunese died in 1989 rather than the alleged “Len Bias Curse” that supposedly haunts the Celtics.
“You need the marriage of two things,” Lowery said. “You need the players to really understand the place that player holds for them in their hearts. And then you need a Bo Kimble to personify for the rest of the players – We’re not going to let his death go in vain. We’re going to make sure this player means something for us.”
DEATH OF AN ATHLETE
Some of the sports world’s most memorable deaths of the past 30 years and the impact they had on their respective teams:
Lyman Bostock: 27, OF, CALIFORNIA ANGELS
Date: Sept. 23, 1978.
Death: Shot dead as unintended victim of a jealous husband.
Impact: Angels finished 5-2. Replaced by “Disco” Danny Ford the next year, the Angels won their first division title.
Thurman Munson: 32, C, NEW YORK YANKEES
Date: Aug. 2, 1979.
Death: Crashed his personal airplane while trying to land.
Impact: Lost next game, 1-0, but finished 31-23. Went 103-59 in 1980, but got swept by the Kansas City Royals in playoffs. Lost 1981 World Series, then endured lengthy postseason drought.
Joe Delaney: 24, RB, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
Date: June 23, 1983.
Death: Drowned while trying to rescue three boys in a pond even though Delaney couldn’t swim.
Impact: After going 9-7 in previous full season, Chiefs went 6-10 in 1983.
Len Bias: 22, FORWARD, BOSTON CELTICS
Reggie Lewis: 27, FORWARD, BOSTON CELTICS
Date: Bias on June 19, 1986; Lewis on July 27, 1993.
Deaths: Bias died of a cocaine overdose two days after he was the No. 2 overall draft pick; Lewis died of heart failure while shooting baskets.
Impact: Celtics won last of 16 titles just before drafting Bias; Lewis’ death preceded eight straight losing seasons.
Sal Aunese: 21, QB, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
Died: Sept. 23, 1989.
Death: After starting as junior in 1988, Aunese was diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer and died after CU Buffs’ third game of 1989.
Impact: Replaced by sophomore Darian Hagan, Buffs finished 11-0 in regular season and won co-national championship the next season.
Hank Gathers: 23, F, Loyola Marymount
Died: March 4, 1990.
Death: Collapsed during a game just months after being diagnosed with abnormal heartbeat.
Impact: The death of the nation’s leading scorer should have doomed Loyola Marymount’s chances, but Bo Kimble and teammates rallied to advance to the Elite Eight.
Derrick Thomas: 33, LB, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
Died: Feb. 8, 2000.
Death: Paralyzed from chest down after wrecking his SUV. Died less than three weeks later from massive blood clot.
Impact: Chiefs went 7-9 in 2000, leading to ouster of coach Gunther Cunningham.
Malik Sealy: 30, FORWARD, MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
Date: May 20, 2000.
Death: Sealy was hit by drunk driver after season’s end while driving home from Kevin Garnett’s birthday party.
Impact: Third-leading scorer on 2000 team that went 50-32 but lost in playoffs’ first round. Replaced by LaPhonso Ellis, Timberwolves went 47-35 in 2001 and again lost in first round.
Korey Stringer: 27, OT, MINNESOTA VIKINGS
Date: Aug. 1, 2001.
Death: During training camp, Stringer collapsed and later died from complications relating to heat stroke, dehydration and ephedrine use.
Impact: After going to NFC title game in 2000, Vikings went 5-11 in ’01, after which coach Dennis Green was fired.
Darryl Kile: 33, P, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Date: June 22, 2002.
Circumstance: Died in his sleep in Chicago hotel room from coronary disease.
Impact: After losing five of next seven games, Cardinals finished 55-29 to win division and advance to NLCS.
Dan Snyder: 25, C, ATLANTA THRASHERS
Died: Oct. 6, 2003.
Death: Killed as passenger in speeding Ferrari driven by teammate Dany Heatley.
Impact: Snyder had only 11 goals in three NHL seasons, but Heatley was Thrashers’ best player who played only 31 games in 2003-04 due to emotional and physical injuries suffered in crash, then was granted trade request after season.
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com.
