After agreeing to plead guilty to shooting and killing a youth football coach in 2022, Yaqub Talib, the brother of retired NFL cornerback Aqib Talib, was handed down his sentence on Aug. 7, 2023.
According to WFAA, Yaqub has been sentenced to 37 years in prison for killing youth football coach Michael Hickmon. In July 2023, he entered a guilty plea for shooting and killing the 43-year-old Hickmon on Aug. 13, 2022, at a football game in Lancaster, Texas.
Prosecutors received permission from the Dallas County court to use Yaqub’s previous offenses in the murder trial. His prior offenses included:
Aggravated assault.
Unlawful carrying of a firearm.
Possession of a controlled substance.
Hickmon’s wife, Kenyetta, addressed Yaqub after the sentencing.
“You killed innocence,” Kenyetta Hickmon stated to the convicted killer. “You killed souls, hopes, dreams, of not just my kids but of the 30 or 40 other kids who were there. Who does that? How did you think that was right?
“I’ll never be healed. I still ask myself every day, ‘Why?’ My kids say, ‘Why, mama? Why?’ I have no answers. Why would someone take a life from kids?”
Hickmon was shot several times after a fight between competing coaching staff. The violence erupted following a disputed referee’s call during a football scrimmage at Lancaster Community Park between two nine-year-old teams—the Dragon Elite Academy and the North Dallas United Bobcats.
Video footage, as well as eyewitness testimony, implicated Yaqub in the killing.
In 2022, Hickmon’s family filed a lawsuit against the Talib brothers in Dallas County. The family is suing Big XII Sports League and Family Services, along with the Talib brothers, accusing the league of failing to vet coaches and to provide a safe environment and adequate security.