If you find yourself more endeared to Derrick Henry than other individual players on the Baltimore Ravens roster, you’re not alone.
The National Football League’s official website published a post in which it selected one player from each team “to root for,” and Henry was the Ravens’ selection.
“For too much of his time with the Titans, Henry was on teams that struggled to compete in a meaningful way. This year, though, he gets to show what he can do for a true Super Bowl contender.”
This is sound logic- you feel for Henry because he hasn’t won anything despite his extraordinary talent and production. That’s because there hasn’t been much supporting cast around him.
Now that he’s changed teams, he finally has that support, so many people want to see what he can really do in that environment.
It is very similar to the career arc of the late great Walter Payton. “Sweetness” once held the NFL records for both career and single-game rushing yards, and he did it despite playing for some brutally awful Chicago Bears teams in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It wasn’t until later in his career that Payton saw his own team become more complete as the Bears acquired more talent to put around him.
The Super Bowl XX triumph put an exclamation point on it. Henry will be hoping for a similar outcome this February.
