Irving, Texas – Rosalind Williams was going to allow herself to watch the first quarter of the Broncos’ preseason opener without her son.
“I think that’s all I can handle today,” she said from her Fort Worth home half an hour before Denver played Monday night at San Francisco.
It’s all day to day for Williams, whose only child, Darrent – the Broncos’ popular, starting right cornerback – was shot and killed at age 24 in the early hours of Jan. 1 after attending a New Year’s Eve party in Denver just hours after the Broncos’ final game of the 2006 season.
Sounding strong and happy this week, Williams said she still has good days and bad days. When told how well she sounded, she said, “You caught me on a good day.”
She deals with her feelings and copes with her grief differently each day. She has known for two months that the Broncos – she remains close to many of the team’s coaches and players – are going to be in the area this week to practice with the Dallas Cowboys and play them Saturday night at Texas Stadium. Yet she still doesn’t know whether she wants to see the Broncos.
“Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t,” Williams said. “It all depends on how I feel.”
Several members of the Broncos, including coach Mike Shanahan, have reached out to Williams in recent days.
“I think a lot of the guys are really excited to see Rosalind,” said cornerback Domonique Foxworth, who was one of Darrent’s closest friends in Denver. “She is an incredible lady and a lot of us really have relied on her strength.”
The feeling is mutual.
“The Broncos have been great to me,” Williams said. “They’re all very good people.”
Williams’ circle of support has extended beyond her family and friends in Texas and her NFL family in Denver. Through Darrent’s agents, Jeff Griffin and Troy Asmus, she was put in contact with Joan Hall, the mother of Atlanta Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall. Her son, Kevin Smith, was shot and killed at age 24 in 1994. DeAngelo Hall was 11 when his brother was murdered.
DeAngelo Hall’s mother helps with his anti-violence foundation. Hall said he is friends with Broncos wide receiver Javon Walker, who was with Darrent Williams when he was murdered, and cornerback Dré Bly, who has replaced Williams in the lineup. Hall said they encouraged him to get his mother in touch with Rosalind Williams. Now the two women talk regularly.
“She has helped me out so much,” Rosa- lind Williams said. “She is someone who understands what I have been through.”
Joan Hall has five other children she has been able to focus on. She said she feels for Rosalind Williams, who lost her only child.
“It’s been 13 years for me and I still am going through my healing process and it will never completely go away,” Hall said from her Virginia home. “Rosalind and I talk about feelings and emotions only parents of murdered children know. We share a special closeness and bond that only we can understand. If she needs me, she knows I’ll always be there for her.”
Williams said the outreach of the entire NFL community since her son’s death has been overwhelming. League commissioner Roger Goodell, who attended Darrent’s funeral just miles from where the Broncos are staying this week, has kept in touch and had Rosalind Williams film a message about safety that will be shown to every NFL team this year. Williams said she will feel close to the NFL forever, especially to the Broncos.
“They’ll always be with me,” she said. “To have them in Dallas will be hard, but it also will be very nice to have them here.”
Staff writer Bill Williamson can be reached at 303-954-1262 or bwilliamson@denverpost.com.
