Moments after the men charged into his apartment, Caperton Humphrey remembered the baseball bat in his bedroom.
If they came at him — and Humphrey believed he saw the imprint of a pistol in one man’s jogging pants — he needed a plan to fight back.
For months, four of these men had been his teammates on the Kansas Jayhawks football team. Now they and about a half-dozen others were in Humphrey’s living room, threatening him, his father Jamie, and even Caperton’s 15-year-old brother. Seconds later, Jamie Humphrey dialed 911, putting his phone on speaker before setting it on a countertop.
Caperton Humphrey didn’t know it, but the end of his time with KU football was just a few days away, with this serving as the breaking point.
The final resolution: KU’s athletic department agreeing to pay him more than $50,000 in benefits to go home after he reported threats and harassment from teammates.
