Chiefs pay 'tribute' to Belcher after murder-suicide
- Belcher's locker set up Sunday morning just as it would have before any game day
- Chiefs OL Eric Winston: 'We're all struggling to reconcile the conflicting emotions we have'
- Chiefs QB Brady Quinn: 'There wasn't one player on our team who thought they could see that coming'
KANSAS CITY – Kansas City Chiefs players tossed their dirty uniforms into laundry hampers, packed up their bags and quietly left the home locker room on Sunday afternoon after their 27-21 win against the Carolina Panthers.
Long after most of the players were gone, two lockers remained full. One of those belonged to linebacker Jovan Belcher.
Belcher's locker was set up Sunday morning just as it would have before any game day. His red No. 59 jersey was draped on a hanger, his red helmet and white pants hanging on hooks. His shoulder pads were there, as well as a pair of cleats.
Belcher was not honored publicly Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, a day after police said he fatally shot his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, and then himself. But privately, Belcher's absence was not ignored, even as his teammates struggled to deal with why and how he died.
"I don't know if it's a shrine, or whatever you want to put it. It's a tribute," offensive tackle Eric Winston said. "He was a player on this team. We're all struggling to reconcile the conflicting emotions we have about a family member, a teammate and the tragic events that took place yesterday. It's hard."
Quarterback Brady Quinn's locker is almost directly opposite from Belcher's, and it took seeing the No. 59 jersey hanging there this morning for it to hit Quinn that Saturday's murder-suicide was a reality and not a nightmare.
"No one would have ever thought it of him," Quinn said. "There wasn't one player on our team who thought they could see that coming. Trying to understand the situation was tough, get a sense of what had happened and who it is now going to affect. It's going to affect the Perkins family, the Belcher family, his daughter for many, many years to come, not just today or the next few weeks."
One other locker remained untouched Sunday – that of tight end Kevin Boss, a tight end who is on injured reserve because of a concussion.