ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WIVB) — This past spring, Bills wide receivers coach Henry graduated from Fayetteville State University with a doctorate degree in educational leadership in higher learning.
Henry calls wide receivers the glory boys of football.
“They do all the dancing,” Henry said. “They’re very animated people.”
It takes a certain kind of person to coach receivers. They have to be really smart, but also able to deal with different personalities. For the Bills receivers, Henry is much more than just a coach.
“They call me doc,” he said. “Doctor, coach, but mostly doc.”
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Henry found himself with more time than usual, so he decided to go after a doctorate degree, which he has had on his bucket list for nearly two decades.
“I was driving with my wife and I seen a sign that said Fayetteville State,” Henry said. “I was like ‘Do they have a doctorial program?’ She was like, ‘I have no idea.'”
NFL coaches often spend more time at the team facility than with their own family.
“Friday was really a catchup day,” Henry said. “Saturday was not as much. Then Sunday’s after games. Sunday night. Monday nights. Just two to three hours when I get home. It’s something that I don’t know if it was balanced. It was challenging. I almost quit two to three times.”
Henry said it was important for him to get his doctorate from a historically Black university. He added that the relationships he built helped him get through one of the hardest times of his life.
“The chair of my dissertation is a close friend of mine and kind of like a mentor because during the process I lost both of my parents,” he said. “I lost my mother then I lost my father.”
Both of Henry’s parents were big on education. To carry on their legacy, he began the Henry Foundation to help out kids who are in need of assistance.
“I give old scholarships at my high school in their name,” he said. “Built a STEM lab at the high school in my parents name, then a couple of endowment scholarships also.”
Bills WR Keon Coleman is a different person from former Bills WR Mack Hollins. Growing up in a household of ten, Henry watched his mother treat his siblings differently and yet give them exactly what they needed.
Now, he’s doing the same for the Bills.