A year ago, the name "Chris Henry" was usually heard in this context: Why did the Bengals ever bring him back? 
 
 But in the last 12 months, Henry has gone a long way toward shedding his image as a poster child for bad behavior. Today, his name is more likely to raise the question: When's he going to start getting the ball? 
 
  Photos: Chris Henry, Family Guy 
 
 
 
 Henry scored a touchdown in each of this season's four preseason games, the first time any Bengal has done that. A quad strain has slowed him through the first five games of the regular season, but Henry's off-the-field comeback is still going strong. 
 
 It's fitting that on a team full of castoffs, the fifth-year receiver was himself jettisoned by the Bengals before getting a second chance. 
 
 And, after a recent sports talk radio show interview, during which callers asked why he wasn't on the field more, Henry mused about the change in perception. 
 
 "Crazy isn't it?" he said. 
 
 But it all makes sense to his agent, Andy Simms. 
 
 "He's having fun and enjoying a fresh start," Simms said. 
 
 "He knows he would love to be out there every play, but he knows his role on the team. I see a guy happy with himself as well. It's all a continuation in the maturation process." 
 
 Gone and back again 
 
 Henry's been on the comeback trail before. 
 
 After serving an eight-game disciplinary suspension in 2007, Henry, 27, appeared to be turning his life around. Then on April 3, 2008, the Bengals released him following his fifth arrest in 28 months. 
 
 Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Bernie Bouchard summed up popular sentiment at the time: "You've kind of become a one-man crime wave." 
 
 Charges of assault and criminal damaging were ultimately dismissed, but Henry says he got the message. 
 
 "I knew what I had to do and I was ready to do it," he said. "That situation came about and I had to get my way out of it because I wasn't at fault. I had to keep working and get through it." 
 
 Henry was out of football for four months. But on Aug. 19, 2008, he was re-signed. After serving another four-game suspension by the league, Henry had 19 catches for 220 yards and two touchdowns and began to regain his stride late in the season. 
 
 Team owner Mike Brown's decision to bring Henry back was not met with universal support inside the organization. It was a rare instance during head coach Marvin Lewis' seven-year tenure in which there was a clear and public difference of opinion. 
 
 Former Bengals offensive lineman Willie Anderson said Henry can thank player-relations director Eric Ball, assistant strength coach Ray Oliver, and director of security Rusty Guy for getting him another chance. 
 
 "Those people busted their tails beyond duty helping him out," Anderson said. "He has found the end of the rainbow three or four times." 
 
 And Henry learned who his true friends were. That included his fiancée, Loleini Tonga, who stuck by his side. 
 
 "It was easy, because I think I know him better than a lot of people. I knew what happened and what they're saying wasn't true," she said. "Besides everything, I see him every day. Standing by him was a piece of cake." 
 
 Said Henry: "Usually you see a lot of people fade away. The phone doesn't ring anymore and people don't want to be around you when you're going though things. Having someone support you no matter what, it's a beautiful thing." 
 
 Getting things right 
 
 Henry's first three seasons as a Bengal featured big plays on the field, and big headlines off of it, from drug charges to gun possession to DUI and jail time for drinking in a Covington hotel room with underage girls. 
 
 "I really didn't think I was going to get in trouble," he said. "I was in the NFL, I had money. Thinking like that got me into a lot of trouble." 
 
 The work of rehabilitating Henry's image began in earnest this offseason. First, he switched agents, hiring PlayersRep Sports Management in February. 
 
 Simms and fellow agent David Lee were leery. But a meeting with Henry and Loleini, and conversations with Henry's current and former teammates, helped put them at ease. 
 
 "The more time you spend with Chris and talk to him, he's respectful, polite and can carry on a conversation. It also shows you can't judge a book by its cover," Simms said. 
 
 "We knew when we sat down with him that we were getting into a fairly unique situation. Whether it was his fault or not his fault, anything else that happened in a negative way would hurt him, so we have to be very careful and hands-on." 
 
 PlayersRep gave Henry financial advice and helped him move out of a downtown apartment and into a house owned by Lee in Wyoming. 
 
 With his personal life stabilized, Henry began to earn back the trust of the coaching staff and teammates. 
 
 "He's rededicated his life, which is exciting to see and fun to work with," said quarterback Carson Palmer. "He's been here to work and coming in with that mindset it's great for the young players to see." 
 
 The biggest change? Everyone has noticed a happier and more content Henry. 
 
 "Now he has a much better approach to everything," said receivers coach Mike Sheppard. "He's easy to talk to, easy to coach and he volunteers information. In the past, you had to ask him all the time. Now he may walk by you and say 'Hi, how are you doing?' It's nice that in my mind he's become a better person." 
 
 Finding balance 
 
 Off the field, Henry says his focus on his family has helped him turn things around. 
 
 Tonga has a stepdaughter, Seini, 3. He has sons Chris Jr., 2, and DeMarcus, 10 months. Another daughter lives with her mother in another city. 
 
 Mention Tonga or the kids, and Henry's face lights up. 
 
 "She's been a big help. She's been right here with me and going through things and helping out on my side," he said. "We have the kids and she has my back with everything I've needed. She's a great person and I love her to death. 
 
 "It's good coming home and seeing those smiles and getting those hugs. It doesn't matter what the situation is, they love you so much. That's what I look forward to. It motivates me." 
 
 Simms also credits Tonga as a factor in Henry's improvement. 
 
 "She keeps him focused and he has a loving and supportive environment," Simms said. "He goes home, he's happy. These are things that her being there is a huge part of his success." 
 
 Henry and Tonga, who have known each other for six years, plan to be married in Charlotte in March. 
 
 Said Tonga: "Just look at him now and forget about the past. We have moved on. He's a wonderful dad and he's great with the kids. I couldn't have asked for better." 
 
 Henry is in the last season of a two-year contract with the Bengals. The last 14 months have gone well, but the player and the team know one mistake could derail everything. 
 
 There's still trust to be gained from coaches, players and fans. 
 
 "I think he's going to be better all the way around for how he's changed his life around," Sheppard said. "During the entire process there was something in there when he figured it out. That doing things right and being a good person was a good starting point." 
 
 Said Thornton: "I think Chris has done a good job of understanding what's important in life. He had his troubles and now he has moved past it. It doesn't mean he will never get in trouble again, because that can happen to anyone, but now he understands that he can be a better person and have a better life by doing things the right way." ||||| Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started March, 2016. These files are currently not publicly accessible. Properties of this collection. It has been several years since the last time we did this. For this collection, several things were done: 1. Turned off duplicate detection. This collection will be complete, as there is a good chance we will share the data, and sharing data with pointers to random other collections, is a complex problem. 2. For the first time, did all the different wikis. The original runs were just against the enwiki. This one, the seed list was built from all 865 collections.
– After years of drug- and alcohol-related incidents, five arrests, and multiple suspensions from football, Chris Henry’s life ended just when those troubles finally seemed to be over. Fianceé Loleini Tonga was the reason behind much of Henry’s recent happiness, Dashiell Bennett writes on Deadspin. Just hours before the accident that cost Henry his life, Tonga wrote on MySpace that the pair had bought their wedding rings, TMZ reports. Bennett points to a “now haunting” Cincinnati Enquirer piece published 2 months ago, lauding Henry’s comeback on and off the field and his newfound commitment to his family. “This last troubling incident is made all the more tragic by the belief of those around him, that there wouldn't be any more,” Bennett writes. “Just like fellow NFL player Sean Taylor, his past did not ‘catch up with him,’ but the saddest stories are those that should have had a happy ending.”