Clemson football player and artist draws emotional tribute for his 2 late teammates

A Clemson football player known for his hand-drawn portraits channeled his grief over the recent deaths of two former teammates for his latest drawing.

Defensive lineman Xavier Kelly posted a picture to Twitter Wednesday as a tribute to his late Tigers teammates, C.J. Fuller and and Tyshon Dye. It depicts the two players in their orange and white Clemson football uniforms ascending into heaven, walking up a golden staircase toward a bright light and a pair of outreached hands, each holding a football in his hand.

“I got emotional when I drew this one,” Kelly wrote in the post, which includes the hashtags #RIPCJ and #RIPTYSHON.

Fuller, 22, died in October from complications after knee surgery. Dye, 25, drowned last week at a Georgia state park.

Fuller and Dye were running backs for the Tigers, and both played on the 2016 national championship-winning team.

Kelly’s Twitter page is filled with a variety of hand-drawn pictures and portraits, from fellow athletes to a Tiger Twirler holding up flaming batons during a halftime performance to designs for clothing items.

“It was always a hidden talent that nobody really knew about,” Kelly told The Anderson Independent Mail last year. “People that were really close to me knew, but I really didn’t tell a lot of people about it because it was just something I did for fun.”