A high school junior in Columbia, S.C., Keon led his football team to state championship game and is point guard for state playoff basketball team.

DENVER — The death by suicide last week of Rondale Moore brought back mournful memories of former Broncos receiver Kenny McKinley.

There were eerie similarities between these two young men. Both were receivers and returners who were standouts at major college programs – Moore’s spectacular freshman year (114 catches,1,258 yards, 12 touchdowns) for Jeff Brohm at Purdue broke records and McKinley’s terrific junior season at South Carolina for Steve Spurrier put him in position to break the significant career receiving marks (207 catches, 2,781 yards) for South Carolina.

Both were drafted into the NFL – Moore was 20 when picked in the second round by Arizona in 2021 and McKinley was 22 when selected in the fifth round by the Broncos in 2009.

The final moment on a football field for each was the disappointment of a second consecutive, season-ending knee injury. And with their football futures reaching a stage of uncertainty, each took their own lives.

“As soon as I’d seen that about (Moore) I thought about Kenny,” said Tymere Zimmerman, head football coach for Heathwood Hall Episcopal Academy in Columbia, S.C.

No two lives, and deaths, are identical, of course, and one major difference was when Kenny McKinley died on Sept. 20, 2010 – the day after his Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks to even their record at 1-1 – he left behind a 2-year-old son named Keon.

And this is where the mood of the McKinley story elevates. Thanks to how he was raised by his mom Shayla Bethea, a pharmacist in the Columbia, S.C. area, and his stepdad Dr. Gary Bethea, who operates a family dentistry, thanks to his coaches and teachers along the way like Zimmerman, thanks also to the incredible long-distance, highly active support of his paternal grandparents, and thanks also to the versatile athletic genes passed down from his father Kenny, Broncos Country will be heartened to know Keon McKinley is doing quite well for himself.

“He’s every spit of his dad,” Zimmerman said Monday in a phone interview with 9NEWS. “From the look of his face, to the way he plays sports, to the way he smiles, to the way he’s a people person — he’s every spit of his dad.

“He plays football the same way. He can play any position. And he does it with a smile. He’s a great kid beyond how athletically gifted he is.”

A junior at Heathwood Hall Episcopal High School in Columbia, McKinley was the best player on the school’s football team that reached the Class AAAA state championship game in November. He is also a point guard for the Highlanders’ basketball team that has a AAAA state quarterfinal game tonight against John Paul II of Ridgefield.

While McKinley leads his hoops team in assists, football is where he has few comparables at the high school level.

Starting at receiver and playing, when needed, cornerback, Keon McKinley, per MaxPreps, finished his junior year with 56 catches for 756 yards and three touchdowns receiving, 43 yards off 10 carries rushing, 37 yards off two completions passing, 70 yards off two interception returns and 451 yards combined off 24 kickoff and punt returns. That’s 1,357 yards in 13 games.

Nearly 20 years earlier, his father Kenny, a converted high school quarterback, was putting up similar prolific receiving and punt return numbers for South Carolina.

“My granddad will be showing me the highlights and everyone will say what kind of good player he was,” Keon McKinley said in an interview with Lou Bezjak of The State newspaper in Columbia for a story published last November. “I remember watching this one highlight of him in high school when he made four guys miss and took it 80 yards.

“I see a little bit of him in me. I feel like I am naturally gifted at the game because of him. And I try to do whatever I can on the field, and I think I can play any position on the field.”

McKinley used to wear his father’s No. 11 on the football field but switched back to No. 3, a number he wore in middle school. He does wear No. 11 on the basketball court.

Keon was 2 years old visiting his dad in the Denver area and was being cared for by two of his father’s friends when Kenny took his life in the bed of his Centennial home. It was a shock to most because Kenny McKinley was such a happy-go-lucky sort, a pleasant personality times infinity.

But according to an investigative report by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Department, McKinley was depressed by his season-ending leg injury, gambling debts – he borrowed $65,000 from practice squad quarterback Tom Brandstater to pay off Las Vegas casinos – a recent court-ordered child support increase, all that on top of a reduced paycheck because of the NFL split cause with injuries.

The tragedy of McKinley’s death shook the emotional fabric of so many in the league – the NFL Players Union set up a trust fund for his young son Keon with the Broncos making a significant donation – and especially the Broncos’ community, which just three years earlier dealt with the murder of second-year cornerback Darrent Williams followed not two months later by the sudden death of running back Damien Nash from a cardiac episode suffered after he participated in his own charity basketball game to benefit heart-transplant patients.

Williams and Nash were 24; McKinley was 23.

As Keon grew up and learned about his father, the people who supported him made to sure to emphasize how Kenny lived, not how he died.

“His stepdad, Gary Bethea, has done a great job stepping into that role,” Zimmerman said. “He’s a great guy, too. Gary owns his own dentist practice and he’s always there for Keon. And his mom, they support him so much. They’ve done an amazing job raising him the  right way.

“And on top of that, Kenny’s dad is here for most of the home games. His grandparents fly in from Atlanta for most of his home games. And Keon will go with them back to Atlanta so his grandparents are very active in his life. He goes there when we have breaks and stuff. They’ve done a lot to support him.”

In a 16-13 win to reach the state football championship, Keon had 12 catches for 96 yards as a receiver and several key pass breakups at corner. In the state championship game, McKinley made a 57-yard reception to set up an early touchdown and 7-0 lead. Unfortunately for Keon and Heathwood, Northwood Academy scored the next 61 points.

“Fell short but Great Szn!!” Keon wrote on his X account, where he has also proudly posted his 3.85 grade-point average.

Like his dad, Keon does well in school, only the son seems more focused and disciplined. Kenny worked hard but he could be a bit of a class clown. Keon has been raised to do his homework before he socialized with friends.

“He’s one of the smarter kids in the junior class,” Zimmerman said. “He gets his work done. No issues with that part. He’s a good friend, good leader.”

Keon is smaller than his dad at around 5-foot-11, 175, “but he’s getting there,” Zimmerman said. “He plays football like he’s 6-3, 240. He’s still growing. When I see him around school, I’m like man, he’s getting taller.”

The South Carolina high school state basketball playoffs are this week – Keon has a chance to reach the state championship game in back-to-back sports – then Keon will have his senior year of high school and college ahead of him. College, in some form or size, is part of Keon’s plan.

“He’s getting looks from a lot of schools,” Zimmerman said. “He’s the real deal. He went to a lot of (football) camps over the summer. We’ll see where it goes with that part.

“But when it comes down to it, he’s very smart so it will come down to does he want to go play football somewhere or is he going to take an academic scholarship.”