Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Brian Price is no stranger to adversity and personal tragedy. Price lost two of his older brothers to gun violence before leaving Crenshaw High School to become a three-year starter and 2009 Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year at UCLA.
A second-round pick in 2010, Price battled hamstring injuries as a rookie, leading to two radical surgeries to reattach both hamstrings to his pelvis and a painful rehabilitation process in order to be ready for the 2011 season.
The latest tragedy to hit Price is the loss of his older sister Bridget, who died last week as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident, Roy Cummings of The Tampa Tribune reports.
"There is just no way to explain the grief he's feeling as a result of this loss," said agent Charles Price (no relation). "It's really taken quite a toll on him.''
His sister had helped him overcome the loss of his older brothers. Perhaps hoping that being on the football field could alleviate some of the pain he's dealing with, Brian Price wanted to attend the start of the Buccaneers' OTAs this week. According to Cummings, however, the mental and physical exhaustion from her death forced Price to stay in a Tampa hospital this week.
"No one has been struck by more bad luck and personal tragedy than this kid," Charles Price said. "But he'll be stronger for it, because that's the way he is. Like I said, he was trying to go on Monday and that was just a few days after all this happened."
Brian Price, who turned 23 in April, plans to honor Bridget by adopting her two young sons, who will move to Tampa to be with him after their school year ends.
"He's planning to adopt those two boys," Charles Price said. "I've actually been assisting him with some of the legal stuff on that. Again, that's just the kind of guy he is.''
If you weren't already rooting for Price, you should be now.
