James White promised himself he wouldn’t cry as he bid farewell to Patriots teammates, coaches and fans in a press conference on Tuesday.
He nearly pulled it off, too. But the final question of the evening — a query about his late father Tyrone, whose steady presence had an enormous impact on White’s development as a player and as a man — overwhelmed the former running back.
“You never really get over things like that,” White said, wiping away tears. “You just learn how to deal with it in a sense. It’s kind of an empty void that doesn’t really go away.