Daiyan Henley didn’t think about skipping Sunday’s contest at Nissan Stadium. Nobody would have blamed him if he had.

The Los Angeles Chargers linebacker was jolted awake on Saturday morning by teammate Denzel Perryman at their hotel in Nashville, who told him to call his mom. Quickly, Daiyan learned that his brother, Jabari Henley, had been shot and killed in Southern California just hours before.

“Being transparent, I dropped to my knees,” Daiyan said, via ESPN’s Kris Rhim.

Jabari, according to the Los Angeles Times, was shot just after 11 p.m. on Friday in South Los Angeles. He was seen walking up to a vehicle, and was fatally shot from somebody inside that vehicle, which then fled the scene. Jabari was pronounced dead at the scene. An investigation is ongoing, though there is not yet a description of the suspects.

Jabari was 34.

The shooting was the latest major incident the Henley family has faced this year. Eugene “Big U” Henley, Jabari and Daiyan’s father, was indicted on 43 counts of running a criminal enterprise that allegedly carried out a series of racketeering crimes and the murder of a rap artist in 2021, per The Times. Eugene is well-known in the hip-hop community, and helped launch the career of Nipsey Hussle, among others. Eugene has denied the allegations.

“That kid’s been through so much, man,” Chargers safety Derwin James said, via ESPN. “He’s our green dot, our leader, our captain, and just being able to battle, bro, that’s tough. And for him to go out there, man, I got so much respect for him.”

Despite the off-field circumstances, Daiyan finished with seven tackles, a pass deflection and a sack in the Chargers’ 27-20 win over the Titans on Sunday.

His sack, which came in the second quarter, left him incredibly emotional out on the field. He quickly dropped to his knees, held his hands up and started praying after bringing down Titans quarterback Cam Ward.

“I just wanted to talk to my brother one more time,” Daiyan said of that moment, via The Times. “It was an emotional moment for me, just to be able to make a play on a day like this — just losing him so soon. It’s been a long year for me, so I just sent a prayer up and hopefully he heard it. I just went out there.”

Playing in the game, he said, was meant to be helpful. It was a decision he came to after speaking with his dad, too.

“I had a lot of pain, man, a lot of pain,” Daiyan said, via ESPN. “I just wanted to go out there and just let it out, whatever I had to get out.”

Daiyan, now in his third season with the Chargers, has 59 total tackles and three sacks this fall. The Chargers, who have won three of their last four, now sit at 6-3 on the season. They will host the Pittsburgh Steelers next week.

“As traumatizing as all this is, I got a job to do,” Daiyan said, via ESPN. “For me, it was coming out here and handling a job first and then being emotional after, and everything hit me pretty hard.

“It’s probably been the worst year of my life, to be quite honest with you.”