Andrew Quarless unfortunately lost his daughter at birth and it's been an extremely rough couple of days for the Green Bay Packers player.
Just last week, the 26-year-old tight end had to miss the first two days of this seasons training camp because his daughter had passed away upon delivery on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. Coach Mike McCarthy told the team that he would be missing camp because of "a very difficult family situation."
It wasn't until Saturday that he returned for his first full day of camp and on Monday, the sixth-year tight end finally revealed exactly what had happened. He shared the devastating news but also acknowledged that returning to this game that he loves was sort of a "safe haven."
As he tried to explain what had happened, he couldn't help his emotions as "tears welled up in his eyes," according to ESPN.
"Probably the saddest day of my life," Quarless sadly said. "I thank this team for the type of support they have given me to help me get through this. Just very thankful for these guys. It's really a family in here. It's really a family."
As for getting back into the sport, he couldn't help but feel some relief once he was finally back on the field.
"It felt real good just to get out there, catch some passes, be able to run around a little bit," he continued. "Kind of get back to your old self and get back into things. I'm looking forward to moving on in this camp and getting ready for the season."
When he practiced on Monday, several of his family members were by his side, including his 5-year-old son, who was "really looking forward to being a big brother."
In July, Quarless was arrested in Miami after he allegedly fired two shots into the air in a public place, but the Packers let him remain with the team despite the incident. He realized he had to learn from his mistakes and apologized to the Packers for bringing "negativity to this place." Now, with this tragic moment in his personal life, he couldn't be more thankful to have them by his side.
"It's been a lot," he said. "It's been a lot. As you grow older as a man, you really understand life and you really understand things. I'm so appreciative of this team. Even from the incident earlier in the month, there's just been so much support. More than I feel like sometimes I might deserve. Just the amount of love from everybody, it's really been good for me. It's hard to explain how much that means to me. I'm just thankful."
His wife, Rosie Sierra, has not yet broken her silence since the tragedy. Just a week before their little girl was born, she tweeted, "Counting down the days...Can't wait to meet our Princess!! @DrewQuarless."
Quarless, on the other hand, took to Instagram just yesterday to thank everyone else for their love and support during this difficult time. He shared a heartbreaking photo of his baby girl's sonogram picture and a pair of pink and leopard shoes he had gotten her.
"Arielle Cecilla Quarless was born July 29th at 4:16pm 7 pounds 13.7 oz 21 inches," he wrote. "I want to thank all my family, friends, teammates, coaches/staff, and fans for being such support to be and my family. My life will never be the same but with everybody's help we have been able to celebrate and honor my daughters life and this means the world to me I promise...We were planning to have a baby instead we had an angel."
A photo posted by Drew (@flyordie81) on Aug 3, 2015 at 6:44pm PDT
