GREENSBORO, N.
Nike Air Max 97 .C. -- With each step D.J.
Reader got closer to a reality he avoided for so long.Nervously, he walked
between the flower-decked gravestones, toward a place where his father once told
him not to dwell.When its over I dont want yall just spending time over here,
David Reader would say. Because my spirit is not there and theres nothing you
can do to change the outcome.D.J. internalized that. Never one for closure, he
didnt seek it when kidney failure finally claimed his father on June 30, 2014,
at the age of 51. He never tortured himself with Why? He never visited the
cemetery after the funeral. He never sought help to emerge from the quicksand of
emotion that was thickening around him. He just allowed himself to sink.It
nearly swallowed the future he has now, but help came from those around him.
Forced to take it, D.J. slowly began to realize that he needed things he didnt
think he did. Clemson mandated he attend counseling sessions, and ultimately he
missed six games in 2015 to do it.In May, the Houston Texans drafted the
defensive tackle in the fifth round, hoping hed one day outplay that draft slot.
He is still playing football because of his fathers sacrifice -- two kidneys
being necessary to play such a violent sport, and David wouldnt allow his son to
donate one. But hes also still playing football because he finally got
professional help for the psychological toll that came with losing the man who
had been his teacher in so many ways.And so on a hot July afternoon, D.J. wanted
to take one more step toward closure. He sat on a chair in his mothers living
room, eating a plate of fruit over a coffee table after a workout. He recounted
all the painful details of the morning he learned his father died, and then he
asked her a question.Can we go over to the grave site?Protecting family until
the endEarlier that day, Felicia Reader sat in her living room with her warm
gray dreadlocks pulled away from her face and tied behind her head. One room in
this house is her office -- it used to be the schoolroom where her husband
taught D.J. once his rheumatoid arthritis grew too debilitating for him to teach
in a school anymore.In homeschooling his son, the lifelong educator found a new
student.The parents tag-teamed coaching D.J.: Felicias father played baseball in
the Negro Leagues, and she attended college on a softball scholarship, so
baseball was her department. Her husband coached him in basketball and football.
When Davids arthritis prevented him from fulfilling coaching duties, Felicia
gladly stepped in.Basketball practices at a recreational center two miles from
home became the first time D.J. had to share his dad with others to whom he was
also a coach. In D.J.s recollection, when he misbehaved, his dad would make him
walk home from the center. Felicia noted that all the while David would drive
his car slowly behind his son, watching over him during his punishment.As D.J.
grew older, he often shared his father with others. Other kids around Greensboro
leaned on David Reader. He loved teaching, and had students even after he
stopped homeschooling D.J.He really cared about youth, said Pat Neal, D.J.s
football coach at Grimsley High School. He cared about education. Kids couldnt
really pass the SAT, so he came to me one day and said lets try the ACT. We had
seven or eight that were getting scholarships but couldnt pass the test. He took
them, tutored them. All passed the test.He took time with other kids, not just
his own. D.J. had to share his father with everybody else. You dont find that
with a lot of people. You find people who pick and choose.He became a father
figure to some of D.J.s teammates at Clemson, young men who often appeared at
the Readers home a three-hour drive away and helped themselves to their
fridge.There were things that I was going through at Clemson that led to me
leaving Clemson, said Shaq Anthony, D.J.s roommate at Clemson. I would talk to
him all the time about school, football, social life, staying level-headed. ...
He was almost like a second father to me.Medication helped his arthritis, but it
also damaged Davids kidneys. As they deteriorated, D.J. discovered through a
blood test that he was a match to donate his kidney. David wouldnt hear of it.
He knew D.J. had a future as a professional athlete and didnt want to derail
that. David refused Felicias offer, too, protecting his family until the end. He
worried about endangering Felicia and potentially leaving D.J. without either of
his parents.He was really adamant about what he wanted, Felicia recalled. He
said he was here to protect D.J. and he was here to protect me at all costs. And
he meant that.While D.J. got tested, David refused to let his wife even take
that step. She tried to argue the point.Tried, but I knew it wasnt going to
work, Felicia said. A very giving man, a very loving man, a very stubborn man.
When it was something that would impact D.J. or Felicia, it was no moving.
Nobody couldve moved him.A donor never materialized.A haunting final
conversationThe day David Reader died felt like a terrible dream sequence to all
of them.Late on the night of June 30, 2014, Felicia heard her husband struggling
to breathe. She called 911. She administered CPR, trying desperately to revive
him, even hesitating to leave his side when the paramedics arrived.In the
emergency room, she sat alone. Having misunderstood her phone messages, the rest
of her family rushed over to her home instead of the hospital. D.J. was at
Clemson for summer school, just back there after a beach vacation with some
teammates.Soon the doctor emerged. Before he said anything, she knew.For about
two hours I was at the hospital by myself with David, Felicia said. I had the
opportunity to cry, to pray and to make sure he was how I wanted him to be when
they picked him up to take him to the funeral.Getting the news to D.J. took his
whole Clemson village.Jeff Davis, another Greensboro native and Clemsons
assistant athletic director of football player relations, went to D.J.s
apartment to tell him. But first, he called Stephone Anthony, a Clemson
linebacker who later became a first-round draft pick. Anthony woke up teammates
Shaq Anthony and Carlos Watkins around four in the morning while D.J. groggily
wondered what his roommates were up to.They were all there with D.J. when Davis
shared the news. They watched him fall to the ground.I didnt want to hear it,
D.J. said. I broke down. I just didnt want to hear it at all.After the funeral,
he refused to go back to the cemetery again. He played an entire football season
without addressing, to himself or anyone else, that the last conversation he
ever had with his dad was suffocating him.That conversation happened right
before D.J. went on that beach trip with his teammates. He brought his dog,
Summer, and Shaq Anthonys dog, Ace, to his parents home, dropped them off and
left without saying anything. When he returned, David told D.J. that
disappointed him. The sting of that disappointment festered after David
died.What he didnt realize then, or for months afterward, was his father knew
his life was ending soon. He wanted to prepare D.J. for life without him.Clemson
went 10-3 that season and played in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando. That
game was on Dec. 29. Away from his family for Christmas for the first time, the
pain began to simmer. It erupted at the end of June 2015, on the anniversary of
his fathers death. On July 1, 2015, D.J. turned 21.I was out of it, D.J. said.
Wasnt a great person. ... Losing my dad, he was like my best friend, my rock. I
never had to seek male attention before because I had a male figure in my life.
Not having that was real hard for me because I didnt have anybody to talk to. At
least I felt like I didnt. I did, but I pushed them away.His brother Wesley
Lewis, 11 years older, tried to fill the fatherly void. Around that time, the
two of them got matching tattoos that said my brothers keeper.Others offered
support, but D.J. withdrew from his friends. Hed spend hours around them not
saying anything. The big, gregarious young man he had been disappeared. Felicia
told him her employer, American Express, offered free counseling, but he didnt
want it. All the while, that last conversation with his dad -- the
disappointment he heard in Davids voice -- clung to D.J. He let it jeopardize
his future.My values were down, everything was down, D.J. said.His teammates and
coaches saw it and, after a breaking point D.J. didnt want to discuss, mandated
he seek counseling. By helpful accident, that counseling changed his life. By
doing it, he realized how much he needed it.When the four weeks passed, he had
more work to do so he stayed. It helped that Clemson didnt lose any of the six
games he missed. He knew his team was OK in his absence. He returned to the team
on Oct. 19, once his heart and mind had healed.Things changed. He earned his
degree from Clemson by the end of that fall and eventually returned to the teams
starting lineup. The spring became a time to prepare for the NFL draft and meet
with prospective teams.He never thought it would be the Texans. That meeting
lasted about an hour. He met defensive line coach Anthony Weaver, defensive
coordinator Romeo Crennell and general manager Rick Smith. He left wondering why
they brought him there.The Texans 2016 draft class was small, and D.J. was their
last selection. He watched the draft at his brother Wesleys house with close
family members. Relief settled in when the Texans called in the fifth round.Id
give all this up to have my dad back, D.J. said. Nothing compares to having your
father here. If I had the option of playing football or having him back, Id
choose him every time. Hed want me to be doing what Im doing now.David Reader
always knew his son would one day be a professional athlete.A son never
forgetsAt Lakeview Memorial Park, D.J. and Felicia walked together, in the
low-90 degree North Carolina heat, through a cemetery unfamiliar to D.J. but one
Felicia knew well.They tore away weeds that had grown over some parts of the
gravestone. He leaned over to grab them while holding a bouquet of artificial
flowers in his left hand. They replaced the previous set of flowers with this
one filled with orange, yellow, white and hot pink lilies. Purple cattails and
green leaves peeked from between them.He crouched down to speak to his father.
He kissed his fingers and touched them to a tattoo with the initials asnf, a son
never forgets. He bowed his head. He wiped his eyes with his T-shirt. This was
so much harder than he thought it was going to be.He stood up and, Felicia
walked over to him.He was a loving husband and father, she said, after reading
the gravestone. It has her name beneath her husbands. The birth year is the same
as his, and the other side of the dash remains blank.Great father, she
added.D.J. put his left arm around her and they stood there looking down
together. Felicia sniffed and D.J. did, too. He turned for a bit to wipe his
eyes again. He needed this.
Cheap Air Max 97 . The Canadian squad,
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Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No.CHICAGO -- Mike Leake pitched just a
little better than former teammate Travis Wood, and helped the Cincinnati Reds
extend their dominance of the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Leake combined with
Aroldis Chapman on a three-hitter and Todd Frazier hit a tiebreaking home run
against Wood in the seventh inning, leading the Reds past the Cubs 2-1 Wednesday
for their record 12th straight win at Wrigley Field. Leake (6-3) won for the
fourth time in five decisions, allowing only Nate Schierholtzs second-inning
home run into the right-field bleachers, his eighth of the season. The
Cincinnati starter gave up one run and three hits while striking out six over
eight innings. Facing Wood, Leake said, is "fun, definitely, and frustrating at
the same time." "You want him to do well and you want yourself to do well,"
Leake said. "Today we both did really well, so you cant complain." Wood (5-5)
gave up two runs and four hits in seven innings, his third loss in four
decisions. He fell to 0-3 with a 4.65 ERA in five starts against the Reds, who
traded him to the Cubs on Dec. 23, 2011, for reliever Sean Marshall. "Felt good
out there today, was locating pretty well and keeping them off balance," Wood
said. "Leake was doing the same, he had an outstanding game today." The Reds
usually do quite well against the Cubs, especially at Wrigley Field. Cincinnati
is 10-2 overall against the Cubs this season and 25-6 dating to Sept. 13, 2011.
Leake improved to 6-2 with a 3.24 ERA in 13 career starts against Chicago. The
previous record for consecutive wins by a visitor at Wrigley was 10, by the St.
Louis Cardinals (1943-44) and matched by the New York Giants (1950-51) and
Montreal Expos (1982-83), according to STATS. Cincinnatis Dusty Baker, who
managed the Cubs from 2003-06, didnt have an explanation for the streak at
Wrigley. "I dont know, man," Baker said. "Just feel fortunate that it happens
when it happens." Cesar Izturis got the Reds first hit off Wood with an infield
single in the fifth, and Cincinnati tied the score in the sixth when Shin-Soo
Choo doubled and scored on Brandon Phillips two-out single. Leake retired 12
consecutive batters before Darwin Barney singled with one out in the eighth. By
then, Frazier had hit his eighth homer, sending a 1-0 pitch through a wind and
into the left-field bleachers, giving thhe Reds a 2-1 lead.
Nike Air Max
97 Womens. Frazier has homered in consecutive games since Baker
gave him the day off Monday to "study and watch" what was happening. "Just
trying to find different release points, trying to pick up pitches," Frazier
said he did on his day off. "Its really hard to do, but at the same time it
keeps you concentrating on the game the whole time." Chapman struck out two in a
perfect ninth for his 17th save in 19 chances to give Cincinnati its third
straight win since losing two of three last weekend to first-place St. Louis.
"St. Louis is a good team. Theyre a battle every time, so I dont think we really
got down because we know theyre a good team, we know theyre going to be tough,"
Leake said. "We just have to take advantage of games that we need to really work
hard. Its definitely good weve gotten three in a row from them." Not much has
been going that way for the Cubs. Theyve lost eight of 10 since a five-game
winning streak, and fell to a season-worst 13 games below .500. In their last
five losses theyve scored a combined seven runs. "Its a broken record," Cubs
manager Dale Sveum said. "Woodys just pitched another great game and has nothing
to show for it." Unfortunately for the Cubs, thats usually how it goes for them
against the Reds at Wrigley. "Were just having fun. Thats the only thing I can
say," Frazier said. "Were relaxed when we play here. We like playing here. Who
doesnt like playing here?" NOTES: Chicagos Starlin Castro went 0 for 3 and is in
a 4-for-48 slide (.083). He hit in the No. 6 slot for only the second time in
his career. ... Choo, normally the Reds leadoff hitter, was second in the
batting order while Derrick Robinson was first. Choo entered 0 for 6 with four
strikeouts against Wood. ... The Cubs placed RHP Zach Putnam on the 15-day DL
and recalled LHP Brooks Raley from Triple-A Iowa. ... When asked if LHP Tony
Cingrani would stay in the Cincinnati rotation, Baker said "Whos spot is he
going to take?" Cingrani gave up two earned runs in seven innings Tuesday, but
the Reds hope Johnny Cueto will be able to return Sunday against Milwaukee. ...
Alfonso Soriano pinch hit and had a game-ending groundout. ... Thursdays
pitching matchup is Cincinnatis Mat Latos (6-0, 2.87) against the Cubs Jeff
Samardzija (3-7, 3.18).
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