Miami Dolphins linebacker David Long Jr. turns tragedy, adversity into motivation
MIAMI - Miami Dolphins linebacker David Long Jr. has endured tragedy after tragedy in his life.
When he was in college, he lost cousins to gun violence. Later, his brother Keith suffered the same fate.
Long recently welcomed CBS News Miami into his home and showed us that he's not letting tragedy define him. In fact, he's using this inspiration to make the most out of his life.
Long's fortress of solitude is his kitchen, where our cameras caught the linebacker pouring himself a glass of wine, then pouring himself into this meal, delighting in his work along the way.
This is the process of the Dolphins' leading tackler, thinking about life outside football, preparing himself for the future while prepping a meal fit for an NFL linebacker.
He talked about his immediate goals, saying he wants to have a family in a few years and "pass something along."
"Sometimes if you want to go outside the box, everybody tell you 'stick to football,' or they don't think you focusing on the main thing. But it ain't even that. It's just like, eventually this has to come to an end, you know what I'm saying. So, what else?"
For Long, "what else" means dabbling in just about anything that piques his interest, from looking into flight school to being more open to the opportunities life in South Florida presents him.
"There's so much out here for me to for me to do, for me to experience. I couldn't limit myself to my environment. And that's why I do a lot of stuff back home, because, like, a lot of kids are just become what they see. And a lot of kids won't even leave the environment. So, sometimes you just got to bring it" to them.
While Long helps others back in his home state of Ohio, he's using the kitchen as a way to center himself, getting lost in the process of creating something from scratch.
"My life is already violent," he said, referring to his sport. He said he has to have balance and get out of his "box."
At the table, we find out how and why Long kept to himself for years. The first thing you notice when walking into his house is a large photo of his older brother, Keith. He was shot and killed in 2020 less than a year after getting out of prison. Long, who was a titan at the time, recalls getting the news.
"We had a game that Sunday night. It was November 2020, when COVID just started," he said. He got a call from one of his older brothers the next morning, telling him Keith died.
"And I'm like, what?" he said, adding that he then hung up. He drove to practice, went to meetings and answered his phone during a break. It was his sister, crying.
"I was like, 'OK, it's real in my head,'" he said. "I just hung up. I couldn't I couldn't even bear to hear. So, right there, I just started, I started balling."
That was on Monday, a few days before a Thursday night game against the Colts.
"That's what people don't understand, like, real life be happening, you know what I'm saying, and we still got to show up," he said.
Long made it back for the game — with his mind elsewhere. He gave up a blocked punt, and to make matters worse, he got a bad case of COVID-19, dropping 15 pounds. It was at the worst possible time. He was isolated from the rest of the world.
His frustrations bubbled up on the field. It smashed him, but he felt every bit of pain.
On his gloves are the letters LLK, for long live Keith.
Long talked about being at a crossroads, and said grief is tough because it never goes away. "You just learn how to navigate it," he said.
He said he got into crystals, energy and sage — "walking and just reconnecting with the Earth .. with just your bare feet."
"I would just find the avenues to be better," he said. "I could soak in it, or I can just continue to try to work on it."
He started working with a therapist in Tennessee and another in Austin.
Long was robbed of time with his brother, Keith. He used that lesson to make the most of every opportunity he now has in front of him. He said he is being intentional with even little things, like cooking.
Now, Long said he is probably the happiest he's been, after joining the Dolphins last year.
"Even just waking up and just seeing palm trees or just driving by the ocean ... just that simple, just opening the sunroof," he said. "It's just a different ... way of life that I'm living now. So, yeah, probably I'm definitely where my feet are."