This is no quarterback drama, no Buttfumble, no Eva Longoria paparazzi shot. This is just grief, a leaden, numbing grief that makes going to work, or eating a simple meal, both a challenge and a welcome respite.
On Monday afternoon, Mark Sanchez carried the coffin of one close friend and former teammate, then learned that night another lifelong football pal had passed away. Joe McKnight, 28, was shot dead on Dec. 1 at an intersection in New Orleans; Konrad Reuland, 29, succumbed two weeks after suffering a brain aneurysm.
“I’ve got to get up and go eat breakfast, I’m going to work out, I’m going to study film and go to practice and things move on,” Sanchez, a reserve quarterback for the Cowboys, said at Wednesday’s practice in Frisco, Texas, via ESPN.