Who was Jeff Gladney? Cardinals players just learned a lot about the late cornerback

“He smiled every day.”

If there was one comment that stood out above the rest on Wednesday when the Arizona Cardinals discussed the tragic death of cornerback Jeff Gladney, it might have been that short, but powerful anecdote from defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.

Not many people got to really know Gladney, even though he signed with the team back in March and was expected to fill a potential starting role in Joseph’s defense. Gladney, who died in a car accident in the Dallas area on Monday along with his girlfriend, Andre Mercedes Palacios, hadn’t been around the team until last week during the first round of voluntary organized team activities.

Gladney was 25. Palacios was 26. Gladney leaves behind a 1-year-old son.

As the Cardinals gathered for their second week of OTAs at their Tempe training facility, they learned a lot more about the likeable young man from a tiny town in east Texas. It came during a Wednesday morning team meeting called by head coach Kliff Kingsbury.

“I had known Jeff when I was the head coach at Texas Tech and he was playing at TCU and always admired his competitiveness, tough-nosed (playing style),” Kingsbury said. “He’s from New Boston, a small town like 4,000 people and he just earned everything every step of the way. It’s tough to handle, but it definitely gives all our players a perspective on just how precious life is. I know a lot of guys want to make sure they live it the right way because you never know.”

According to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, Gladney and Palacios were in a white vehicle that was speeding on the service road of a Dallas freeway. Their car clipped a second vehicle with two passengers from behind. The speeding vehicle lost control and struck a pier beam just before 2:30 a.m. Monday, overturning into a grassy area.

Neither occupant in the second vehicle was injured.

Gladney might be gone, but the Cardinals will never forget him, even if they never really had a chance to get to know him.

“Kliff did a phenomenal job of addressing his story, his journey, which I think was needed because not everybody’s story is actually talked about it any fashion,” veteran right tackle Kelvin Beachum said Wednesday. “But to actually hear his story and what he’s overcome to become an Arizona Cardinal, he went through a lot. He persevered through quite a bit and he was resilient.

“Everybody I talked to, they always talked about he had a smile on his face. You realize this young man had a lot of joy.”

That’s what Joseph said he will remember about Gladney, who was a first-round pick by the Vikings in 2020 and was just getting his life back together after being found not guilty on a 2021 charge of felony domestic assault.

“My first thought went to his family and his friend in the car and her family,” Joseph said. “As a parent, that’s a nightmare of a call. You get a call your child is gone. It doesn’t matter how it happened. It’s a tragedy through and through. For her family, for his family, for his child who’s 1-year-old, his mom and dad, his cousins, his teammates, his coaches, everybody. It’s very sad.”

After Kingsbury discussed what happened with the entire team, the Cardinals broke into offensive and defensive groups and talked about it some more.

“Then we broke into groups and discussed it again,” Joseph said, adding, “Obviously, the DBs were the closest to Jeff, so those guys are obviously moved by it. He was a great guy. He was working, trying to get back on track. He smiled every day. He was going to help us, obviously.”

Wednesday wasn’t the time or the place to ask what the Cardinals do now at the cornerback position and how they go about replacing Gladney. As Joseph noted, “guys are still processing his death.”

“The football part, that doesn’t stop,” he added. “We have to figure out ways around not having Jeff. He was going to be a big part of what we did this year as a starter, at least on nickel downs. But that right now takes a back seat to what’s going on.

“Our DB group is really saddened by this. I told the guys this morning, ‘Life is precious. Not only to you, but to the people who invest in your life. Your parents, your teammates, your cousins and your friends. That’s so important in life. It’s not all about you all the time. It’s about people who invest in you. Sometimes, young folks think, ‘It’s about me, it’s my life, I can do whatever I want.’ You can’t, because when those things happen, it affects all of us. The folks who invest in you, man, that you owe them.

“You can make choices and those are free, but the consequences are not. That’s plain for our guys right now.”

Kingsbury said it helped having several veteran players around on Wednesday, including quarterback Kyler Murray, wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and offensive linemen D.J. Humphries, Justin Pugh and Beachum.

“Having those type of veteran presence around at a time like this is definitely huge,” he said. “… It helped getting back into normalcy some.”

Cardinals second-year wide receiver Rondale Moore said the entire team was scheduled to gather after final meetings on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate Gladney’s life, short though it was.

“Today as a team we’re actually going to go and have a gathering at Main Event and kind of spend some time with each other,” Moore said. “I think that’s important to kind of show your loved ones how much you love them, tell them every day that you love them, spend the time with everyone because you never know with life how it’s going to pan out.”

Have an opinion on the Arizona Cardinals? Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com and follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac. Listen to him live on Fox Sports 910-AM every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 on Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch . 

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kliff Kingsbury made sure Cardinals players knew who Jeff Gladney was