John Beam, his junior-college coach, was shot and killed this week.
John Beam wanted to get his steps in. That was the premise for taking one of his many college protégés, Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright, up and down the Magnificent Mile for hours last month.
The real reason, of course, was for teacher and pupil to catch up the night before the Bears hosted the Saints.
Beam, who coached Wright at Laney College in Oakland, California, came to Chicago last month to watch him face off against his brother Rezjohn, who plays for the Saints.
‘‘We rarely talked about football,’’ Wright said Sunday. ‘‘We just talked about life and my plans and what I had going on.’’
They talked Wednesday night, too, this time on the phone. Beam joked with Wright to keep reminding people that he was the one who switched him from wide receiver to cornerback in junior college.
On Thursday, Beam was shot on campus. He died the next day.
On Sunday, Wright paid tribute to him the best way he knew how. With 42 seconds left in the first half, Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy threw into the end zone looking for wide receiver Jordan Addison, only for the 6-4 Wright to jump high and intercept the pass.
