The family of youth football coach Michael Hickmon, who was allegedly shot dead by ex-NFL player Aqib Talib‘s brother, Yaqub, in August has filed a wrongful death suit against the Talibs according to reports.
The suit was filed in Dallas County on Tuesday and alleged the 36-year-old Aqib Talib instigated the brawl that led to Yaqub’s alleged shooting of Hickmon. The lawsuit also claimed Big XII Sports League and Family Services failed to properly vet coaches and provide a safe and secure environment for the participants.
The Big XII Sports League and Family Services are also named as defendants in the suit.
According to eyewitnesses, on Aug. 13 Yaqub Talib pulled out a gun and shot Michael Hickmon in Lancaster, Texas, a Dallas suburb. Talib shot Hickmon multiple times after a disagreement between the opposing coaching staffs of two youth football teams over calls made by the officials during a game. The arguments led to a physical fight, instigated by Aqib Talib, before Yaqub Talib pulled out a gun. Yaqub Talib fled the scene in an unidentified vehicle and took the gun with him.
Yaqub, 39, turned himself in to police Aug. 15, after he was named as a suspect by the Lancaster Police Department.
The Talib brothers are known to be bullies and antagonists in that youth football league, and while the shooting of Hickmon is the only major incident, there has been a pattern of aggressive behavior on their part.
“If you’ve been around the youth football world you know the Talib guys don’t like to lose and they give everybody a hard time,” DEA president Courtney Jackson told the Dallas Morning News. “I would call it rambunctious and overly aggressive.
“In the youth football world if somebody is crying about a call you might say stop whining or quit crying. They don’t laugh those things off. It gets personal with them.”
Raymond Alford, a partial owner of the Big XII Sports League, said the league had no involvement at the game where the incident took place, as it was a preseason fundraiser.
“We have no control over what happens in the pre-season,” Alford said. “We don’t run the games, we don’t supply the fields, we don’t supply the referees.”
Alford also added that Yaqub never applied to be a coach with the league.
Hickmon was the coach of his son’s football team and leaves behind a wife, three kids, three grandchildren and a devastated extended family. The family is seeking damages in excess of $1 million.
What’s that going to do? No amount of money will bring Hickmon back. And what is a paltry million dollars compared to a human life?
A man with a family, another human being lost his life over 9/U youth football. What are we doing as a society?
42,385 people in the United States have been killed due to gun violence in 2022, and we still have a couple weeks to go before the calendar flips to 2023.
Aqib Talib was a five-time Pro Bowl player, two-time All-Pro, and a Super Bowl champion during his NFL career. He has yet to make any public statements regarding the lawsuit.
