Bailey says his friend's inner dissatisfaction never detracted from his outward effort. "He was really tough," Bailey remembers. "He had to play safety, and at 180 pounds, that's not easy."
Then, tragedy rendered football concerns secondary.
Foxworth had dozed off early on New Year's Eve 2006, but a phone call from Bailey woke him at 4:30 a.m. Williams had been shot and killed outside a local club, Bailey told his friend.
Foxworth drove to the hospital in a daze, uncertain whether he should be crying. In the weeks ahead, he fumed at news reports that questioned Williams' lifestyle.
"I stopped watching TV for about a month with the exception of TLC or Nickelodeon, where I knew there wouldn't be anything about it," he says. "Because it got under my skin. ... I knew him, and people who were telling these stories that painted him as some thug who just ran fast enough to get into the NFL, it would eat away at me."
The Boys and Girls Club had provided a refuge for Williams at times when his life seemed about to go off track. Foxworth not only helped the Denver club establish a new center for teenagers in Williams' name, but he also taught a weekly writing class for the kids.
The center's opening was an emotional turning point. "I felt like that was the first time that I could hear Darrent's name or say Darrent's name and smile," Foxworth says. "While that teen center isn't going to replace him in my life or his family's life, it's going to put something in the lives of thousands of kids over the years that is going to do more good than Darrent could have in his entire life."
He still calls Williams' mother on her birthday and on his fallen teammate's birthday.
Foxworth's football fortunes in Denver did not turn around. Though it hurt him to cut his ties to the Denver community when he was traded to the Atlanta Falcons last season, the move liberated Foxworth professionally.
Removed from Bailey's shadow, he played the best ball of his career. His tenure with the Falcons made him a top-five cornerback in this year's free-agent pool, and it just so happened that Foxworth's hometown team needed a starter at the position.
When Foxworth spoke with Ravens coach John Harbaugh, he sensed a kindred spirit. "He was taking notes," the cornerback says with an approving nod. "So there's that attention to detail. It ends up demanding more from your players if they see you in that same light. They have to respond in the same way. It fits right into the way I've been raised and the way I've conducted my career."
