This week, Tarik Cohen finally returned to Greensboro in North Carolina to host a football camp at his alma mater of NC A&T.
The Chicago Bears running back turned what was supposed to be a festive event into a very serious one when he revealed that his brother was just recently shot. Not only that, the gunshot ultimately led to paralysis.
“I want to tell everyone right now something I’ve not told anyone until now,” he said, standing with one hand on the boy in the wheelchair. “My brother was shot recently. He’s in a wheelchair now, too. He’ll never walk again.”
“This is my first time talking about it to anybody,” he said afterward. “I’ve been struggling with it. I’m still struggling with it. My friends don’t really know, besides a certain few. They’ll find out today.”
Cohen said his younger brother was shot in Raleigh and is paralyzed from the waist down.
Camp director Jay Wilson stated Cohen keeps his emotions to himself and had not told anybody about the shooting prior to camp.
“That’s the first I’d heard of it,” Wilson said. “He hasn’t mentioned it, and it hasn’t been on any social media or anything like that. Tarik is a person who keeps things inside, always has been. When he saw the kid in the wheelchair today, I think it touched that heart. It was a real good moment.”
Cohen racked up 1,900 total yards and 11 touchdowns in two seasons with the Bears.
