The sad, pathetic story of Travis Henry, who went from a multimillionaire NFL star to a man who can't pay his bills and may spend most of his life behind bars, has been well documented. But a new profile of Henry in the New York Times may do the best job yet of explaining how Henry got where he is.
Henry has nine children by nine different women, and he has been thrown in jail for failing to pay child support. And yet Henry comes across as so clueless in the Times profile that he says he has spent $250,000 on jewelry and adds, "That ain't a lot."
Henry recently went from his home in Denver, where he was under house arrest while he awaits trial on felony cocaine trafficking charges, to a courtroom in Georgia, where a judge refused his request to have his support for one of his children lowered, to a jail in Florida, where he was held in contempt of court for failing to pay support for another of his children. Through it all, he sounds like a man who was simply never prepared for any challenge other than breaking a tackle.
"I've lost everything in this mess I've gotten myself into," Henry said.
Even though Henry signed a five-year, $25 million contract just two years ago, he is out of money, and there is no chance that he'll actually support all nine of his kids into adulthood. And even though he is only 30 and has three 1,200-yard seasons to his credit, there is no chance that another NFL team will offer him a contract.
So what Henry has ahead of him is a cocaine trafficking trial, where if he's convicted he'll do many years in prison. If he's acquitted he'll keep spending time in courtrooms trying to get his child support reduced, and in local jails if he's held in contempt for failing to pay. In the Times profile, Henry mentions his own father walking out on the family as a reason for his problems. How sad that he didn't learn from his father's absence.
UPDATE: After Birth of Twins, Henry Now Has 11 Kids by 10 Women.
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