Denver Broncos football player shot, killed

The news of the first morning of the new year:

• Darrent Williams is dead.

The second-year Denver cornerback was shot to death in a drive-by shooting outside a Denver nightclub this morning, just after 4 a.m. ET. A white Hummer limo with Williams and two companions in it was reportedly sprayed with bullets from a vehicle that pulled up next to it. Williams died from his wounds; the two others, a man and a woman, were wounded. I knew Williams. I met him last year when I was writing about impact rookies, exchanged phone numbers, and talked to him three or four times. Intense overachiever. "Nobody will out-work me,'' I remember him saying. A little-engine-that-could type at 5-foot-8 and about 165 pounds. Fearless. Such a sad and senseless thing. We know nothing more about the story right now, as of 10 a.m. ET.

And all I can think of, right or wrong, are the words of freshly minted commissioner Roger Goodell when we spoke near the start of the season. "I worry about guns and our players,'' he said. "We've really got to get a handle on why there's such a proliferation of gun violence around our players.'' Amen. Now, we know nothing about the story, and whether Williams had a gun or simply was the victim of senseless violence. But guns, money, athletes. It doesn't go away

WASHINGTON, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Denver Broncos football player Darrent Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting early on Monday and two people with him were injured, ABC television reported. Williams, 24, was riding in a limousine in downtown Denver after 2 a.m. (4 a.m. EST/0900 GMT) when shots fired from another vehicle hit him and a man and woman also riding in his car, ABC television reported. "It is a terrible tragedy," National Football League spokesman Greg Aiello told Reuters. "We don't know all the details yet, but we are reaching out to the Broncos to offer our support."
Denver Broncos spokesman Jim Saccomano told the station that police had telephoned the Broncos and told them that Williams had died. It was not known how badly the other two people were injured. The shooting occurred just hours after the Broncos were eliminated from the playoffs with a 26-23 overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Williams was in his second season with the Broncos coming out of Oklahoma State University as a second round draft choice. The 5-foot-8 (1.7 metres), 188-pound (85.4-kg) cornerback started nine games in 2005, the most by a Denver rookie at that position since 1975. He had two interceptions in 2005 and four this season.