Chiefs players and staff attended a private memorial service Wednesday for Jovan Belcher, the linebacker who killed his girlfriend and then himself over the weekend.
General manager Scott Pioli gave a eulogy for Belcher during the one-hour service. Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel had tried to calm Belcher before the player shot himself in the stadium parking lot on Saturday.
“It was rough on him,” Hall of Famer Bobby Bell said of Pioli. “It’s a sad situation. You never want to be put under those situations. … You don’t want to see things like that. For him to get up and say something, I don’t know how he got through it.”
Chiefs players attending the service had little or nothing to say, but Bell summed up their feelings.
“You don’t wish this on anyone," said Bell, a Chiefs linebacker/defensive end from 1963-74. "He’s done what he did, and it’s over with, and now we have to sit back and see where we go from here. I’m in a daze. … I can’t understand a young kid, 25 years old … his life is in front of him, and for it to be cut this short.
“Now the team has to move forward. It’s tough on them. A lot of the guys … when you see somebody and played with them, your buddy, your friend … he was just too young, man.”
Meanwhile, it was reported Wednesday that the estate of guardian of Belcher's infant daughter will receive more than $1 million under terms of the NFL's collective bargaining agreement.
Read more about that story and others, plus check out videos, trivia and more, at Thursday's Morning Mashup [1].
Links:
[1] http://leeinks.weei.com/sports/2012/12/06/thursdays-morning-mashup-shocked-chiefs-attend-memorial-service-for-jovan-belcher
[2] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/general