The horrific mass shooting in Orlando that left 50 people dead at a gay nightclub rippled through every community Sunday, when a shocked world volleyed between disbelief and anger and sadness.
A.J. Francis, a journeyman defensive tackle who signed with the Bucs last month, traveled the gamut of emotions, first expressing a pleading hope for the future before getting more and more incensed trying to make sense of the senseless.
Omar Seddique Mateen, the suspected shooter, had been enraged after he saw two men kissing, according to his father. That intolerance, and the wanton acts that allegedly followed, had Francis grasping for answers.
Francis, a renaissance man whose off-field hobbies include Uber driving, personalized the profound tragedy. He told a short story of everyday anti-gay sentiments, of a few friends being harassed because of their orientation.