C.J. Beathard honored the life of his late younger brother, who was slain the week before Christmas.
On Friday (December 27), the San Francisco 49ers quarterback penned a touching tribute on Instagram one week after his brother, Clayton, 22, and his friend Paul Trapeni III, 21, were fatally stabbed in a scuffle outside Nashville’s Dogwood Bar & Grill on December 21.
“Clay has the biggest heart of anyone that I have known. Anyone that knows him knows this, he would do absolutely anything for the people he loves,” Beathard wrote along with a photo gallery featuring images of Clay. “He is the most loyal guy that I have ever known in my life.”
Beathard went on to describe his brother as one of “the sweetest, most humble, toughest, and kind hearted” people in the world, adding that although Clay and Paul were “called home” he remarked they “are and forever will be my best friends.”
“We grew up doing everything together going all the way back to my mom sitting us three down at the kitchen table everyday and homeschooling us. And I want to go ahead and [I say] all of this in the present tense because Clay still IS!” he continued. “He didn’t ‘used to be’ this or that, he still ‘is’. He just lives in a different place, and that place is called Heaven.”
“I just know Clay is looking at us grieving down here right now saying ‘stay strong’ ‘I’m doing great up here’ and ‘I will see you soon,’” Beathard went on, before closing with: “What happened is absolutely awful and has been and will continue to be the hardest things my family and I have had to go through. But I can find some peace knowing that he is at peace in heaven right now, and I know without a doubt God will bring a whole bunch of good out of this.”
Clay, who had just finished his junior year at Long Island University, where he also played quarterback, was remembered in a celebration of life ceremony Saturday (December 28) at Grace Chapel Church in Franklin, Tennessee.
Photo: Getty Images