Missing former Cowboys player found safe in Dallas
DALLAS - UPDATE: Lincoln Coleman, Jr. has been found safe.
Coleman told FOX 4’s Brandon Todd that he has been having some struggles and was staying at a Dallas homeless shelter. He walked back to his mother’s house after seeing himself on the 9 p.m. news.
Coleman’s mother said she is just happy to have him home safe.
---
A former Dallas Cowboy many fans will remember from the snowy Thanksgiving Day game in 1993 has gone missing.
Lincoln Coleman Jr., who wore #44 during his playing days, disappeared last week while visiting his mother in Dallas. He splits his time between Dallas and Florida.
His family says he has lingering health effects from the brutality of the NFL, including dementia.
Dallas police don't have any evidence yet that Lincoln is in danger or critically missing, but they do want to find him and so does his family, who say they’re worried about his health condition.
Waynita Coleman says she just wants her son back.
"Just help me find him and bring him home,” she said.
The 48-year-old former Dallas Cowboys running back hasn't been seen in eight days.
"Just get him home,” she said. “If you see him, direct him home. Help him make a phone call. Whatever it takes."
Lincoln is a Dallas native is known largely for his NFL debut during the snowy Thanksgiving Day game in 1993 when the power running back replaced an injured Emmitt Smith and went 46 yards on 10 carries. He now lives in Florida but is often in Dallas visiting family.
Lincoln’s fiancée, Maria Swanson, says she spoke to him last Tuesday as he was driving in Pleasant Grove.
"I talked to him on the phone. He was stuck in traffic,” she recalled. “He said, ‘I'm on my way home.’ And that was the last I talked to him, and he sounded fine."
Lincoln spent two seasons with the Cowboys and battled drug and alcohol addiction in the years that followed. After a stint in rehab, his family says he has been clean for the past five years.
During his playing days, Lincoln mentored kids and currently has been everyone from kids to NFL players who battle addiction.
"He helps and works with several rehabs down in South Florida,” said Christopher Randolph, a sports agent. “He does outreach here."
But Lincoln’s reputation as a so-called battering ram running back left him with at least eight diagnosed NF: concussions during his career and possibly more, according to his family, during his time playing arena football.
"He had a heart attack in 2015,” explained Randolph. “And those things with the dementia, we don't know where his health condition is at. He hasn't had his medication. We just need the public to help"
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to contact the Dallas Police Department.