Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Langford trying comeback during time of grief
DAVIE – Kendall Langford plays one of toughest positions in all of professional sports.
His job as a defensive tackle is to wrestle at the line of scrimmage every snap, serving as an unmovable pillar of granite while one — and maybe two — 300-pound offensive linemen labor to move him out the position, or keep him from collapsing the pocket.
Langford, a 10-year veteran who rejoined the Miami Dolphins last week, possesses a toughness that has allowed him to do his job well for a decade, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be moved to tears.
Much like the rest of us, life can break a tough football player too, and broken is exactly how the 32-year-old would described himself in the final months of 2017.
“I dealt with everything life could have thrown at me,” Langford said Tuesday shortly before tears began falling down his cheek as he discussed his trauma. “2017 was by far the worst year of my life.”
First there was the knee injury that led to the 113-game starter being waived by three teams in one year. Then life hit him. His wife Cristin Langford had a relatively stress-free pregnancy and Kamden Alexander was born on Oct. 6, but the medical staff feared something was wrong with their son.
“The nurses and doctor were, concerns about the length of his fingers and toes and had suspicion that it was Marfan syndrome,” Langford wrote in a Twitter post chronicling the families’ heartache earlier this year.
Kamden was diagnosed with neonatal Marfan syndrome, a rare and severe genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissues. Babies born with the illness have a likelihood of congestive heart failure, according to the National Institute of Health.
Doctors discovered a heart murmur from Kamden early on, and he ended up passing away Nov. 28.
“I felt my world was caving in on me!” Langford wrote on Twitter.
“A piece of our heart left on that day and that void can never be filled!” Langford continued. “I almost lost my faith and had a beef with God about why would he do this to me and my family.”
Langford broke down Tuesday discussing Kamden and all he went through. Like any parent who has lost a child he’s probably still coming to terms with his loss, and his pain, and likely needs a distraction.
Football has always been that for Langford. It was his way out of everything, including poverty.
That’s why he trained four days a week at Bommarito Performance Systems to keep himself in shape, and did boxing training on the fifth day to keep his handwork sharp for the grappling that takes place in the trenches.
“I’m looking forward to getting my career back on track in 2018 and moving forward,” said Langford, who played 18 snaps for the Dolphins in last Friday’s preseason loss to Carolina despite not practicing with the team before the game.
The Dolphins need help at defensive tackle and William Hayes, who played with Langford back in their days together with the St. Louis Rams, kept bringing him up to coach Adam Gase and defensive line coach Kris Kocurek.
General manager Chris Grier was a part of the Dolphins scouting department that drafted Langford in the third round of Bill Parcells’ first draft class running Miami’s front office, and he had a favorable view of the Langford, who started for Miami as a rookie and during the three years that followed.
“That’s a veteran guy that basically everybody in this building respects,” Gase said. “It’s good to have him here.”
How long he stays depends on how well Langford performs in the next two preseason games, and whether or not Miami plans to keep four or five defensive tackles on the 53-man regularseason roster.
Coincidentally, or not, Langford was a member of the last respectable defensive front the Dolphins possessed, so he knows the work that must get done to fortify that unit, easing the departure of Ndamukong Suh, who was waived this offseason to clear cap space.
“I’m looking forward to this being my best year yet,” said Langford, who contributed 38 tackles and seven sacks with the Indianapolis Colts in his last full season in the NFL, back in 2015. “I’ve grown tremendously over the years as a player. My knowledge of the game. My recognition, [I have the] ability to see what’s coming at me. As a football player and a professional I’ve developed tremendously.”
Playing time will do that for players.
And life experiences, similar to the one Langford and his family are going through, will do that to us all.