L’Jarius Sneed may miss Sunday’s Raiders game after family tragedy

On Saturday morning, the Kansas City Chiefs added cornerback L’Jarius Sneed to their injury report, noting that he is now questionable for Sunday’s Week 14 division matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Chiefs said only that Sneed’s status was for personal reasons — which typically remain unknown outside the organization — but before long, the Kansas City Star’s Sam McDowell had reported what was going on: Sneed’s brother T.Q. Harrison was killed on Friday night in their hometown of Minden, Louisiana.

As you may recall, in mid-November, McDowell published an account of Sneed’s upbringing in a family he described as being stricken with “generational imprisonment” from murder convictions and drug arrests.

At the time of his birth, Sneed’s father — Non Sneed — was in prison. When he was a year old, his mother Jane Mims Sneed was also incarcerated after a confrontation that occurred while she was rushing young L’Jarius to a hospital after an accident in their home.

And that’s where Sneed’s brother T.Q. comes into the story.

L’Jarius lived with his maternal grandmother in a Section 8 apartment complex. Other extended relatives pitched in.

But if you ask him who raised him, L’Jarius answers without hesitation.

“My two brothers,” he says.

His oldest, T.Q. Harrison, is 9 years his elder. Harrison changed diapers and cooked meals. He ironed clothes and walked his brothers to school. He still remembers the bottle regimen because he had such a tough time progressing L’Jarius to regular food.

To this day, Harrison talks about L’Jarius more like a son than a brother. He affectionately calls him “my little dude.” Mimicking a proud parent, his Facebook profile picture is a photo not of himself, but of L’Jarius.

“Man, yeah, it was hard,” Harrison says. “But what choice (did) I have?”

As Sneed deals with the latest tragedy to strike his family — which by McDowell’s account, is now very close-knit — it seems in question as to whether he will be available to play against the Raiders on Sunday.

We hope that during this troubled time, you will join us in thinking of Sneed and his family.