Caught up with him at the mall right after he signed with the Panthers. Nicest guy. Happy to take a pic with the wife.

Tough place to grow up in those hollers of SW Virginia.

With regard to cause of death, can I just say this as a general statement?

Yes, it was already well understood that Devon had some back problems, so yes, it is reasonable to read-into the situation what someone (I don't recall who, and I'm purposely not going back to look) read into it, particularly since no one in his circle appears to have cited a cause.

But, I think sometimes folks are just way too overanxious to be the first to come up with the correct theory for why this happened or that didn't happen, and it's especially important I think to resist doing that any time the theory might be viewed by the family as people throwing shade on their loved one.

So, if the family preferred not to publicly indicate some cause of death, the classy thing to do, it seems to me, is just leave it there and not presume... or at least, only presume privately, not publicly, and just be content publicly to honor the person's memory... certainly not to forward any theories that might make the family or his friends feel bad about "what people are saying"... that's just how I see it, for what it matters.

(11-10-2018 06:15 PM)_sturt_ Wrote:  Tough place to grow up in those hollers of SW Virginia.

With regard to cause of death, can I just say this as a general statement?

Yes, it was already well understood that Devon had some back problems, so yes, it is reasonable to read-into the situation what someone (I don't recall who, and I'm purposely not going back to look) read into it, particularly since no one in his circle appears to have cited a cause.

But, I think sometimes folks are just way too overanxious to be the first to come up with the correct theory for why this happened or that didn't happen, and it's especially important I think to resist doing that any time the theory might be viewed by the family as people throwing shade on their loved one.

So, if the family preferred not to publicly indicate some cause of death, the classy thing to do, it seems to me, is just leave it there and not presume... or at least, only presume privately, not publicly, and just be content publicly to honor the person's memory... certainly not to forward any theories that might make the family or his friends feel bad about "what people are saying"... that's just how I see it, for what it matters.

I understand what you're saying. That said, it's simply not natural for a presumed healthy (non-diseased) 25-yr old professional athlete to die. The outcome naturally raises questions about the cause of death. Furthermore, when family and/or friends choose to hide the cause of death from the public, it naturally stokes rumors. Unfortunately, most people end up presuming the worst, which in the end, is really unfair to the deceased.

With the exception that we don't actually know how healthy and disease-free he may have been (as far as I'm aware), I agree with all the rest of that, hog... and would only re-emphasize that it's not like those of us on the outside can't control ourselves... we can if we choose... and some consideration/respect for the grieving family and friends in our public comments is a really nice standard to embrace.