Carolina Panthers punter Andy Lee sat in a chair in a busy Starbucks on a drizzly March Tuesday in Myers Park.
He was crying.
His wife, Rachel, patted his knee softly, her own large brown eyes brimming as Lee pressed his index finger to the side of his throat to help force his words out.
They were strikingly and palpably close in that moment, a private cocoon of sorrow and support in the midst of a city’s mechanical coffee shop routine.
There were strangers all around – one, to Andy’s right, trying very hard to hide behind his book, one just behind him and the reporter he had only spoken to twice before in front of him, watching him break down.