MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (WGN) — Before Cairo Santos hit a game-winning field goal to send the Chicago Bears into a celebratory frenzy, cornerback Nahshon Wright had a moment that will echo much longer than Ben Johnson’s “Good, Better, Best” speech did postgame in the visitors’ locker room of U.S. Bank Stadium.

Near the end of the first half, Wright was matched up one-on-one with Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison on a double move down the left sideline. As Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy uncorked a throw toward the goal line, Wright established inside position and elevated to come down with an acrobatic interception.

“I was like, go get it!” Tyrique Stevenson said, recounting Wright’s pick. “When I saw him lock eyes with the ball, I just knew he was going to come down with it.”

What happened next was emblematic of the week Wright had going into Chicago’s contest in Minneapolis.

He gathered himself, walked to the back of the end zone, and took a knee. Teammates Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Byard knelt beside him and placed a hand on his back. A wave of emotion hit Wright then and there. Tears streamed down his face. He was mourning the loss of a man he looked up to.

“It looked like Lob City the way he got up there. It was incredible,” Byard said. “I know he’s been through a lot this week … He was playing with a heavy heart today, so I just told him I was proud of him.”

Wright’s junior college head football coach, John Beam, was shot and killed in what local police described as “a very targeted incident” on Laney College’s Oakland, California, campus last Friday.

“It hit me immediately. It meant the world. I’m going to take that ball back home and give it to his family,” Wright said after the Bears’ 19-17 come-from-behind victory. “He meant the world to me. When my dad was killed, he came over to my house and got me out of bed.

“Really, I’m just at a loss for words.”

Wright said Beam stepped up and was a pillar of support when he lost his father in 2017. A year later, Wright helped the Laney Eagles win a California Community College Athletic Association state championship under Beam. Wright made 12 starts and notched 17 tackles, four interceptions and three passes defensed on his way to all-conference honors.

He went on to transfer to Oregon State to further his collegiate football career before being taken in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft, but the two never lost touch, and maintained a friendship long after they went their separate ways.

“He’s someone I could confide in, someone I loved dearly. Beam stepped in as a father figure … He did a lot for me and my brother, and my family. He’s been there every step of the way,” Wright said. “We talked once a week, easily … He called me the night before he passed. He told me, every game he’s watched, he’s seen me get a pick … I just know he was watching over me.”

Earlier this season, Wright and the Bears took on his younger brother, Rezjohn, and the New Orleans Saints. Beam was in attendance for the occasion. It marked the first time the two Wright brothers squared off on an NFL field. Before that mid-October day, Nahshon and Rezjohn both played for Beam at Laney College.

Wright memorialized Beam with a post on Twitter/X on Saturday after he heard the news.

“My heart aches so much right now. Beam is the most down to earth person I’ve ever meet,” Wright wrote in part. “I’m glad I was able to speak with you one last time before this happened. I’ll miss sitting in that office and talking about life,football and finances, walking around that track. I could write a book about you. I’ll love and miss you Forever. Love you Beam.”

Beam, who was featured on season 5 of Netflix’s Last Chance U, had a prolific impact on helping Oakland-area youth chase their dreams of playing football at both the collegiate and professional level.

According to Beam’s profile page on Laney College’s athletics website, he helped more than 100 players make DI college rosters, and produced more than 20 NFL players between his time at Skyline High School in Northern California, and 13 years spent as head coach at Laney from 2012-24.

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee described Beam as a “giant” in the city who mentored thousands of young people, including her own nephew, and “gave Oakland’s youth their best chance” at success.

*Reporting from the Associated Press contributed to this story.

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