NFL makes University of Virginia players killed in campus shooting honorary draft picks
Prior to the first round of the NFL draft Thursday night, the league honored the three University of Virginia football players killed in a campus shooting last November.
Commissioner Roger Goodell ceremoniously drafted Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D'Sean Perry with the honorary first picks of the 2023 draft. On stage, Goodell presented the families of the players with No. 23 jerseys of their favorite NFL teams.
The family of Davis, a wide receiver from South Carolina, was given a Ravens jersey. Perry, a 6-foot-3 linebacker from Miami had a Dolphins jersey. A transfer originally from North Carolina, Chandler's name was on a teal Jaguars jersey.
Perry, Chandler and Davis Jr. were on a bus returning from a class trip when Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a member of the Virginia Cavaliers football team in 2018, opened fire upon the group's arrival back to campus.
Two other students were hospitalized in the shooting
Tonight, the NFL honored and celebrated the lives of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry by having a special ceremonial draft to forever enshrine them in the NFL.
#UVAStrong | @NFL | @NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/ExCdCYj8NM— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) April 28, 2023
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL makes UVA players killed in campus shooting honorary draft picks
