Texas High School Football Team Mourns Loss Of Jordan Edwards
The Texas high school football team that Jordan Edwards had been a part of prior to his untimely death mourned him Monday morning.
Members of the Mesquite High School football team in Balch Springs, Texas, got together before classes began and wept and prayed, before walking toward Edwards' family and offering them hugs.
"It was a hard, hard morning," football coach Jeff Fleenersaid to The Washington Post, "and one of those things they don't ever prepare you for as a coach."
Fleener said that he decided to cancel the team's first day of spring practice and instead asked all 160 players to come to the school's athletic field house before school started, so they could be in a supportive space to grieve. The players were accompanied by Jordan's parents and brother, school administrators and counselors, a local pastor and a city councilman.
"It was a heartbreaking and crushing moment to see a bunch of 15 and 16 and 17-year-old kids deal with a very adult issue," he added. "They needed to not be too proud to ask for help."
The athletes have already discussed plans to immortalize Edwards, including wearing helmets adorned with the No. 11, Jordan's freshman team jersey number, and asking the senior who wore it on varsity would let Jordan’s brother have No. 11 this year.
Balch Springs police have since retracted the initial statement made around the incident that resulted in Edwards' death. Originally, police had said that the vehicle Edwards was in was reversing toward the cop in an "aggressive manner." Balch Springs police chief Jonathan Haber has since changed his statement saying, "I unintentionally (was) incorrect when I said the vehicle was backing down the road…in fact, I can tell you that I do have questions in relation to my observation (of) the video. After reviewing the video, I don't believe that it met our core values."
The Dallas County Medical Examiner's office has ruled Jordan Edwards' death as a homicide, killed by a rifle wound to the head.