Darnell Dockett of the Arizona Cardinals is dedicating this Sunday’s Falcons home game to his slain mother.

According to the AP, Dockett, an Atlanta native, returned to his Decatur, Ga., home that day to find his mother shot to death in the head, a crime that never has been solved. He went to live with his father, who died a few months later of pancreatic cancer. An uncle is credited with saving him, helping him avoid a life of drugs and crime on the street.

Every time I go into that city, even when I was in college (for Florida State) at Georgia Tech, when I went to Atlanta it was a big thing for me to do well in those games. … That’s where my life really started, there’s so much tragedy there.”

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