Marcell Dareus: Brother’s Death Took A Toll
By Mike Dyce
Marcell Dareus was looking forward to his second NFL season when tragedy struck his family. His brother, Simeon Gilmore, was one of three men shot do death in Pelham, Alabama. Dareus left the team briefly but didn’t miss any games.
And while Dareus might have been present physically, mentally and spiritually he was absent. The loss of his brother made it hard for him to focus.
“It’s really tough to come back and think about work when every time you turn around you lose someone that’s close to you,” Dareus said, via Chris Brown of the team’s website. ”And you really don’t have a mother or father to fall back on and talk to. It took a toll on me last year. I just had to be a man and finish the season hard and suck it all up.”
Anyone would have trouble focusing after a loss like that.
Despite the slow start he finished the season strong and ended up second on the team with 5.5 sacks.
“Things just started turning around for me. It took me a lot to come out of my slump for the things that happened to my family,” said Dareus. “I think the Patriots game was my coming out game and I kind of started picking it up from there, picking up the pieces and it started to come together for me.”