By Emmanuelle Hewson and Sydney Bellm
This story is a part of the Cincinnati’s Storytelling of Journalism project, which represents a collaboration between Northern Kentucky University (NKU) journalism students, the NKU Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Students interviewed professional journalist winners and finalists from the Greater Cincinnati SPJ Chapter’s 2023 Excellence in Journalism Awards to create these Nieman Storyboard Annotations-inspired Q&As and story annotations that analyze and celebrate our region’s award-winning works of journalism.
2023 Excellence in Journalism Award: Sports Feature Reporting
Winning Journalist: Scott Springer, The Cincinnati Enquirer
Winning Story: Ex-Bengal Chris Henry's sons walk, look like him. Even better, they play football like him
Scott Springer felt as though he had seen a ghost when observing DeMarcus and Chris Henry Jr. on Withrow Junior High’s football field in 2021.
With similar looks and incredible talent, the resemblance to their father, former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry Sr., was both uncanny and undeniable.
Springer was working alongside a freelance photographer at the time who was involved with Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference—a league made up of inner city schools’ athletic teams. Withrow Middle and High School both fall into that league, and the photographer notified Springer of the boys' attendance.
So Springer looked further into the matter. He found that Adam “Pacman” Jones, a former teammate and friend of Chris Henry Sr.'s, had become a legal guardian of the Henry children after Chris Henry Sr. tragically passed away in 2009—when DeMarcus and Chris Jr. were just months old.
Springer knew this was a story, and he wanted it to be about the kids rather than their family history. He did his best to avoid any controversy around Jones and Henry Sr. or focusing on the tragedy of Henry Sr.’s passing.
“When the newspaper caught wind of the story, they wanted to make a big deal of it,” Springer said. “We had a bunch of meetings with a storytelling coach, and typically I just write a story and that’s that.”
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“This one involved meetings,” Springer added, “and there were a lot of phases to it.”
Springer typically reports on University of Cincinnati sports for the Cincinnati Enquirer, but he ended up winning the best feature story award from Cincinnati SPJ for this coverage connected to high school sports and the Cincinnati Bengals.
“These are known kids, they’re very good and people are going to find out,” Springer said. “You’re better off having me do it rather than someone else that’s going to come in and do it.”
NKU students Sydney Bellm, Emmanuelle Hewson, Andrew Bellamah and Trey Egan asked Springer about his interview techniques, advice for covering stories of loss and how this story differs from the rest of his work.
What types of interview questions did you ask the family for this story?
I asked the grandmother, “How does this make you feel?” because here’s somebody that lost a son. It's kind of eerie because this kid looks just like his dad, and that’s the first thing she said, “That’s Chris Henry’s baby there.” I think Chris Sr. was an organ donor and helped a handful of people and she had met some of the people that got his organs. In her case, it was just, “Tell me how happy you are.” You went through something about as devastating as a mother could go through but now you’re getting to watch your two grandsons. They’re excelling and they’re on their way. That was kind of fun.
With Pacman, I didn’t want to ask anything that was going to set him off to where he’d say, “Alright, stop. No interview.” I got out what we needed to get out. I allowed him to talk about what he was doing, which he is an expert in.
Eventually, I was able to talk to him [Chris Henry Jr.] as he moved up to West Clermont. I know I did a video somewhere with him—very nice. I didn’t talk to the younger one, but I have talked to the older sister. I was really worried about the presentation of the past facts of their family and the mother emailed me and thanked me for the story. That reassured me that we didn’t go too far because I didn’t want to bring up all this bad stuff that had happened in the past, but again, you had to because that was part of it. She obviously had no complaint about it and was kind enough to find me and email me because I didn’t even have her number.
What kind of advice do you have for other journalists when interviewing the loved ones of someone that’s passed?
Try to put yourself in their shoes if you can. Nobody can actually do that, but just try to be sensitive about it and apologetic. I try not to be pushy. If they don’t want to talk, I’ll tell them “Tell me what you want to tell me,” and if you don’t want to talk, I understand. If you do, I’d love for you to talk to me. First and foremost, I want you to be comfortable with it so I’m not going to make anybody say anything they don’t want to say. It’s a tightrope you walk, and it’s not fun. I mean, I’ve had to talk to parents that lost children that were athletes, I can give you a handful of examples. I think of them almost every day and I can't imagine losing a kid. There’s sad things that happen every so often and you don’t really get into sports to cover those things, but sometimes you have to. Life has peaks and valleys, and the peaks are a little more fun to cover than the valleys.
How did this story differ from the rest of your work?
It differed because it was more of a story. At that time, I was covering more high school sports and some of that stuff gets to be kind of assembly line—you’re just covering a game. Hey, well, you gave it 110%, we played well, played better than them, we won—there’s the story. You’re always looking to find something interesting in everything that you do, but this had some drama, background, history to it. You had a famous former Bengal, another former Bengal with these kids—it had a lot of things that would bring people in to listen and read it, and they did.
How often would you say the sort of non-game coverage stories come up in your sports beat?
I mean, not weekly, but maybe every two or three months something happens. I am working on a story right now, which is not necessarily tragic, but it's unfortunate. The University of Cincinnati basketball team that I cover has two players that are two-time transfers. They both claimed under NCAA guidelines, a mental health waiver, and they met all of the claims so transferred for the second time. They saw professional psychiatrists, psychologists, and as I said, met all the waiver claims. But the NCAA is saying that they cannot play. So the University of Cincinnati has now got some attorneys involved, and are going back and forth with the NCAA. UC is arguing, why do you have these guidelines that say, if you meet this criteria, and you're having a mental health issue, that you can transfer for the second time. But then wipe that and say they cannot play.
Both of the kids I saw play last year. One was at Temple and one was at Utah Valley. The one from Utah Valley is from Senegal and I don’t know if you’ve been to Utah? There aren’t a whole lot of people from Senegal there. Cincinnati doesn't have a huge population from Senegal, but he felt more at home here. Cincinnati also has great medical facilities right on our doorstep. You go back to the Cincinnati–Buffalo game and Damar Hamlin. If he wasn’t near that trauma center, he wouldn’t have made it. He was very fortunate that just where Paycor stadium is, UC medical is right there. So in the same respect. They also have mental health facilities. So part of the reason for selecting Cincinnati was this.
Ex-Bengal Chris Henry's sons walk, look like him. Even better, they play football like him
By Scott Springer, Cincinnati Enquirer
HYDE PARK - Look closely. The Withrow Junior High School Tigers are on the field and pretty much having their way with any and all opponents.
On either side of the offensive line, two young wide receivers stand ready to catch any pass that comes their way.
If you know football, they look very promising.
If you've been around Cincinnati a while, they may even look familiar.
They are No. 1 and No. 5, known by friends and family as Man-Man and Bubba.
They are the two sons that Bengal wide receiver Chris Henry, who wore No. 15 and died tragically at 26, left fatherless as babies.
Question: When and how did you settle on the story's opening and structure? Did you link it to the title?
Answer: That came about in the editing process and speaking with five or six others on staff on a Zoom. Where a sportswriter can become robotic due to the volume of material we spit out, this deserved a different start. At the time, the Enquirer storytelling coach was Amy Wilson who helped craft this to explain the uniqueness of the story for those that might not be familiar with Chris Henry Sr. I recall debating on using “left fatherless at babies,” but she was adamant on including the harsh reality of what happened. For someone who didn’t know the past, it was a key element and factual, so it wasn’t a long disagreement. I just kept the emotions of the kids in mind and as the father of four sons, I tried to not hammer home the unfortunate decisions of their dad. As you can see by the title, it does sum it up in a few sentences.
Fatherless, but not alone. Because in Henry's stead, another familiar face came to their rescue, to be the dad and mentor Henry could not.
As he told NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe on Sharpe's podcast in early September, equally familiar Bengal Adam "Pacman" Jones is the Henry boys' adoptive father now.
They call him Uncle Pac.
Question: Did Jones go into depth about the personal toll of losing his friend and becoming the guardian of his children? If so, why didn’t you choose to mention that here?
Answer: They were college teammates, but he didn’t go into much personal grief over his loss. The family had been living in North Carolina and Jones had been up here. Obviously, he kept in touch with the mother. I think he noticed the skill level of the kids as they grew and figured he could help train and get them in the right places here. On the outside, Pacman is not terribly emotional, but I do think he cares about the kids and wants to do good by his former teammate. He does have kids of his own and some others that live with him.
'I love those kids to death': Pacman Jones steps in to help family
Henry would be 38 if he were living today, watching now 14-year-old Chris Jr. ("Man-Man") and 12-year-old DeMarcus ("Bubba") play football. Henry and Loleini Tonga also have a daughter, Seini.
The kids were 3, 2 and 10 months when their father died in Charlotte, North Carolina, Dec. 17, 2009, after falling out of a truck and striking his head during what police later termed a domestic dispute. His season that year had ended early when he broke his left forearm in early November while playing the Baltimore Ravens.
Nearly a dozen years later, Chris Jr. is already 6-foot-3-inches and glides smoothly to the ball much as his 6-foot-4-inch father, once a deep threat who complemented Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh on some of Marvin Lewis' best teams.
Chris Jr. cooly corrals balls and, though an eighth-grader, would not be out of place on any varsity team.
If you double-team No. 1, No. 5 DeMarcus can burn you on the other side.
"Every game I come, they always make a touchdown," proud grandmother Carolyn Henry Glaspy said. "They're following their Daddy's traits. They just make me happy to be here. No. 1, that's Chris Henry's baby, and No. 5 is right behind him."
They had a little help there.
Jones, the deeply talented cornerback from West Virginia University, was taken in the first round of the 2005 draft by the Tennessee Titans. Henry, who also played for WVU, was drafted in the third round that year by the Bengals. Both had their own trials and tribulations in the NFL.
They were close. They had been roommates.
And, when Henry died, Jones stayed in touch with Henry's children's mother. Jones was a Bengal from 2010-2017 after Henry's passing but has stayed in town. The Henry boys had been coming to town every summer and Jones and Tonga had extended conversations on how he could help them achieve their goals.
"Sports-wise, football-wise, we think it's best for the boys," Jones said. "I can push them a little bit more. I've done the things they're trying to do. We have an unbelievable relationship. I love those kids to death. Their mom loves them to death; their grandma loves them to death."
Jones is married with his own kids, but Loleini Tonga is also in town now. Henry's mother, Carolyn, has been in town for more than a decade.
Big cheering section at Withrow Junior High School
At a recent game against Aiken, plenty of friends and family were at Withrow cheering on Chris Jr. and DeMarcus. Tonga, Glaspy, Pacman, his wife and kids all huddled around the two spitting images of a football talent lost nearly a dozen years ago.
"I think they have the ability sports-wise and grade-wise to be special and play on the next level," Jones said. "And, I'm not talking college. We're family-oriented. They're here in Cincinnati because Uncle Pac's got the recipe to make them be unbelievable as far as sports and education."
It doesn't come without the work.
Jones has them in the gym at 6:30 in the morning before school begins at 7:30 a.m. After school, there's a practice or a game. If not, they're back in the gym.
Their talents are not surprising considering they came from athletic parents (Tonga played volleyball) and that a former NFL defensive back is challenging them on pass routes.
"I don't let them catch the ball," Jones said. "If they catch the ball. they deserve to catch the ball."
Grinning, Jones admits the taller pair can score a bucket or two on his 5-foot-10-inch frame in basketball.
Question: How much time did you spend with this Pacman Jones?
Answer: I had reached out to him via social media upon hearing of the boys at Withrow and he quickly responded. I tried to explain my intentions and that I’d be coming out to watch them play. In person, I probably spent about an hour and a half that day during the junior high game.Through messaging before and after, maybe another 30 minutes. Again, I had some familiarity with Chris Henry, having covered him as far back as when UC played West Virginia and then during his Bengals time. Same with Pacman. I think being a veteran reporter here helped because I knew of them as players and the backstory as well as recognizing what talents the kids were (and are).
"Bubba (DeMarcus) is left-handed, so he's really kind of tricky with the ball," Jones said.
Jones sees everything in the kids that he saw in the teammate he knew as "Slim."
They walk the same; their mannerisms and demeanor are the same.
Question: Why did you choose this wording?
Answer: Pacman had spent so much time in college with Chris Sr., that even he was amazed at the similarities. In this sentence, he hadn’t talked about DeMarcus (the younger son) as much and I wanted to include something on him as he’s a good athlete as well. He just doesn’t catch your eye like Chris Jr. as (at the time) he wasn’t as tall and the resemblance isn’t as striking as that of Chris Jr. and Chris Sr.
Jones practiced with Chris Sr. every day when they were West Virginia Mountaineers.
"He got me to where I was at," Jones said. "Without Chris, I would not be drafted sixth overall, first defensive player. It's a big family thing. We're just trying to expose them to everything that's possible in a positive way."
Jones said the boys have some memories of their father and have seen plenty of his acrobatic, beautiful pass receptions. He knows No. 15 would be immensely proud of Nos. 1 and 5.
"He got cut short and we didn't get to see everything he had in the tank," Jones said of what could have been.
Young Tigers in orange and black
"They're the life-blood of the future here at Withrow," Kali Jones, Withrow varsity coach, said while watching the Tigers' junior high game. "They (Henry's sons) are outstanding athletes and outstanding student-athletes."
By all reports, Carolyn Henry Glaspy's grandsons are doing well in the classroom, too.
Their dad would be pleased by that too.
Glaspy's eyes glow when speaking of them. Her son's transplanted organs saved four people whom she has met.
Now she watches her son's sons prosper.
Question: This is an interesting fact to add in. Why did you choose to add this near the ending?
Answer: I was trying to humanize the story a little more. The initial thought of the death of Chris Henry Sr. is that he was often in trouble and made poor decisions. His mother Carolyn Glaspy, though, was extremely proud and made a point to meet those who benefited from the donations. She also smiles widely when talking about the grandsons because she sees so much of her own son. Basically, it was just a way to show that good can come from bad (though I would always recommend good).
"I think they're just having an awesome time having fun being kids," Coach Jones said.
