NFL lineman shares emotional update after stillbirth of son

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Cleveland Browns’ Hakeem Adeniji provided an update a week after making the heartbreaking announcement that he and wife Kayla were mourning their stillborn son.

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“Everything was fine and going well, and this past Friday, Kayla couldn’t feel him,” the offensive tackle said in a video posted last week. “She felt him earlier that morning, so we went to the hospital…got an ultrasound…they put it on her stomach and didn’t hear anything.”

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As tears filled his eyes, Adeniji went on to say: “It was the worst moment of my life.”

“I can’t describe it to anyone,” he added.

Adeniji’s son, who was named Semiu, was stillborn on Nov. 2 and had a due date just days later on Nov. 7.

On Sunday, Adeniji shared another post on Instagram featuring photos of himself and Kayla with their stillborn son and the caption: “Better days ahead of us.”

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“It’s been a little over a week since we lost our boy,” he wrote in a note posted with the pics. “There’s been anger, sadness, and emptiness. The fact that he is gone has set in now, and nothing can change that. I’ll never get to see him grow up, and he’ll never get to read his journal I wrote for him. I miss him, and I’ll miss him every day for the rest of my life. Kayla and I want to remember him for all the happy times he gave us, and all the hard moments he got us through.

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“As we continue with life, I don’t want anyone to treat me any different than before, or feel like they can’t say certain things around me. I still love kids and still want to [be] happy for all my friends in their good moments. I know my little soldier is up there watching us and giving us strength.

“Everyday that God continues to wake me up, I will do right by him and make him proud. This will be hard, but that’s life. Always has been and probably always will be.”

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Kayla posted additional photos of the family on her Instagram, sharing her thoughts in her caption.

“We lost our son. We had to say goodbye to the most perfect, beautiful boy I’ve ever seen,” she wrote. “We will never ever be the same, and we will never forget him.

“He had a head full of curls and his daddy’s nose,” she added. “The softest cheeks and big hands. He will always be my son and I will always be his mom.”

Adeniji was a sixth-round pick of Kansas and played his first three NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals before joining the Minnesota Vikings in 2023.

He signed with the Browns this past March, but has not been able to suit up for his new team after suffering a knee injury during training camp and being placed on the injured reserve.

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