Then, a few days later, Bowe got a call he'll never forget.

On the other end was another ex-LSU teammate. The friend he had run into at the airport was dead. Searchers found the body of New England Patriots lineman Marquise Hill on Monday, a day after he was reported missing after a jet ski accident on Lake Pontchartrain.

"I went home and I prayed for his family" Bowe said. "I was just with him in the layover going home. ... That's why you can't take anything for granted. You have to live every day to the fullest. I'm going to talk with the young guys."

Everyone here says Bowe, a big, rugged wide receiver who was Kansas City's first-round draft pick last month, is working hard and making progress. He has even become friends with veteran Eddie Kennison, the man he could eventually push out of a job.

But the news of Hill's death came as "quite a blow."

"I had just asked him how he was doing. He said he was home to see his daughter," Bowe said.

He said he'll remember Hill "as a character, a comedian."