The Minnesota Vikings admire the strength of cornerback Antoine Winfield, who played against Jacksonville in the season opener while dealing with a personal tragedy.

Winfield on Monday, Sept. 10, told KFXN-FM 100.3 that his brother, Anthony Travis, was murdered Wednesday in Winfield’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. Winfield missed Thursday’s practice as a result, but returned to the team for Friday’s practice and recorded four tackles in Sunday’s 26-23 overtime win over the Jaguars.

“I tell you, I have so much respect for Antoine,” coach Leslie Frazier. “To experience the loss that he experienced this week and to come to work, to work as hard as he did and then to play in the ballgame and play as well as he did, I don’t know that I could have done that. I don’t know many people that could have done that. It’s just a … very courageous young man, very strong young man. And his teammates, they were very supportive. They were pulling for him.”

Winfield told the radio station also known as KFAN that he was very close with Travis, who was supposed to visit him in Minnesota soon. But returning to work helped Winfield cope.

“We have a great group over there,” Winfield told KFAN. “Especially that locker room. The players, the coaches, the ownership, they prayed for me, hit me with their condolences and made it a lot easier.”