Dwayne Haskins’ death is a heartbreaking tale of potential taken far too soon

The news was stunning, then chilling, finally heartbreaking: Dwayne Haskins, the 2018 Heisman Trophy finalist at Ohio State, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, son, husband, brother and friend was fatally struck by a dump truck Saturday morning while trying to cross a highway on foot in South Florida.

Haskins was 24.

Our hearts go out to his wife Kalabrya; his parents, Tamara and Dwayne Haskins Sr.; and his sister, Tamia.

“It’s been a bad day,” Doug Williams, who won a Super Bowl with Washington and is now a senior adviser to the president of the Commanders, told me on Saturday. “I spent the whole day thinking about how this could have happened. We know it did happen, it can happen. Just trying to find out how and why.”

Haskins and I met for the first and only time two years ago, Feb. 20, 2020, during a symposium on Black quarterbacks at the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University.

Haskins was a member of a panel I was moderating that included quarterback legends Marlin Briscoe, James “Shack” Harris, Warren Moon and Williams. Jayden Daniels, then a freshman quarterback at Arizona State, was also on the panel with Haskins, who was reserved but insightful and took pains to acknowledge the pioneers on the panel.

What stood out to me about Haskins is that, far from the image that had been painted of him as an aloof and disinterested actor, he knew about the quarterback position, knew about the history of Black quarterbacks and knew how he wanted to play the position.