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The strength of Simmie: IU wide receiver shaped by tragic loss of father

Inside the hospital, they were crying.

That's what 9-year-old Simmie Cobbs saw first, the grief-stricken faces of his assembled family members.

Then, he saw the body.

His father, Simmie Cobbs Sr., had been shoveling snow in Chicago hours earlier when the stress of the work — along with a decades-long addiction to cigarette smoking — led to a fatal heart attack. He was 41.

In that moment, in that room, Cobbs didn't want hugs. He didn't want sympathy.

He wanted his father.

So Cobbs shooed everyone away, then climbed into the bed where his father's body lay.