Subscribe
Follow Us
Chicago Bears running back Tarik Cohen recently suffered through a family tragedy when his younger half-brother, Dante Norman, when the young sibling was shot in Raleigh, North Carolina, and paralyzed from the waist down.
Although Cohen must report to Bears training camp next week, he’ll carry with him a new perspective he says he acquired after the tragedy.
Speaking to media during his youth football ProCamp at Elk Grove High School via The Chicago Sun Times, Cohen noted that the news of the injury hurt him as soon as he heard it.
“I feel like I was injured also,” Cohen said. “Someone I’ve been around my whole life. I feel like we’re one. He’s not a different person; we’re the same person. So if anything affects him, it affects me. That’s my little brother. I’ve done my best to protect him his whole life. So then when this happened, it was like a culture shock to me.”
Although Cohen has had to stick to a strength and conditioning schedule with training camp ahead, he’s still been trying to visit Norman as much as he can.
“I just want to do things for him,” Cohen said. “I want to just, I know it’s not possible, but I feel like I want to walk for him.”
Cohen said that he initially wasn’t planning on telling anyone about the incident, but after seeing a young man in a wheelchair during a youth football camp in North Carolina, Cohen decided to tell the public.
“I saw my brother in him,” Cohen said. “And I just saw how much fun he was having. And it just made me think of my brother and how his life is going to be.”
“It just came out; I wasn’t planning to say it or anything.”
The Bears start training camp on July 25.
