Like many sports fans, I have spent a lot of time last night and today thinking and reading about Chris Henry. Strange story. Awful Story. Senseless story. By all reports the guy was finally getting his life in order, and we have seen before that he is one heck of a player when his mind is on the game, so it seems like a horrible waste for things to have turned out like they have. The details will likely come out and perhaps make more sense of what now seems exceptionally odd, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter. The thing to focus on here is that 26 years old is way too young for anyone to go regardless of the problems they have had or caused.

At the risk of sounding callous or insensitive, from a handicapping perspective this horrible situation causes some challenges as well. It seems from what we have read and heard today that Henry was a popular guy among his teammates, that his owner had a soft spot for him, and that this situation will have a sincere effect on the team. The trick is to determine what that impact could be. The Bengals are in a very tough situation already this week – a trip to San Diego to play the red hot Chargers. This situation will unquestionably have an impact on the team. The question is what that impact will be. Here are a couple of issues that will help to determine that impact:

1. The Bengals, unfortunately, know tragedy – Vikki Zimmer, the wife of popular defensive coordinator Mike, died very suddenly in October. The team did a very good job of rallying around their coach, and they won the next game thanks to a good defensive effort. They showed that they had the character as a team to deal with that, so they could have the character to deal with this as well. On the other hand, the team might look at this as just being too much to deal with in one year, and could use it as a legitimate excuse in a tough game. It would be hard to truly know for sure unless you were in the dressing room. Being on the road and far from home is probably a positive in this situation, though.

2. A parallel – Thankfully there aren’t too many similar situations like this in the league to compare this one to. The obvious one, though, is Sean Taylor. In many ways the comparisons are spooky. Both players were popular with their teammates and reportedly much different than their public perceptions, both guys were home with injuries, and both died far too young. When Taylor was killed the Redskins had to try and pull themselves together to host the Bills at home. Washington was favored by 6.5, but didn’t play as well as they should have and ultimately lost by one – 17-16. The difference in the situations is that the Redskins were playing a game they should have won, while the Bengals aren’t.