Dennis Weathersby
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| Dennis Weathersby | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | June 16, 1980 |
| Place of birth | Glendora, CA |
| Position(s) | Cornerback |
| College | Oregon State |
| NFL Draft | 2003 / Round 4 |
| Statistics | |
| Team(s) | |
| 2003 | Cincinnati Bengals |
Dennis Weathersby (born June 16, 1980 in Glendora, California) is a former NFL cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals. He played in college for Oregon State University. At OSU he started 45 games, and set a school record of 57 passes deflected. He was named to the Pac-10 All-Academic team 4 consecutive years.
He was projected to be drafted in the first or second round of the 2003 NFL Draft. However, on April 20, 2003, only three days before the NFL draft, he was shot in the back in an apparent gang-related shooting when he and his friend were mistaken for gang members. Despite the incident, the Bengals still drafted him in the fourth round joining his former Oregon State teammates Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh who were also drafted. He survived and recovered from the shooting, but his injuries took longer than expected to heal and he only played in 4 games his rookie season.
On April 12, 2004 he was involved in a car accident that put him into a coma. Dennis eventually came out of the coma and made such progress as to astound his doctors. The first sign that he might recover was when he was still supposedly unconscious and was visited by Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. Dennis's foot was hanging from his hospital bed when Lewis told him to put it back in the bed. Weathersby promptly put it back in his bed. Unfortunately for Weathersby, the Bengals, believing that he would never play football again, cut him before the 2005 season.
Despite his run of bad luck, Dennis is making another attempt at coming back to the NFL. It was reported by ESPN that doctors cleared him to resume work on May 17, 2006, and that he is eager to get back to playing.
At this point it is doubtful that the Bengals will re-sign Weathersby because of questions surrounding his health. They traded for former Bronco, Deltha O' Neal, and in the 2006 NFL draft the Bengals picked up Jonathan Joseph but are currently in need of a CB due to the aging of Tory James and the inconsistent play of O'Neal. [original research?]
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