Shaquil Barrett’s family is turning their grief into a learning lesson.
A little more than two years after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker shared that his and Jordanna Barrett’s 2-year-old daughter Arrayah died after drowning in their swimming pool, the couple is spreading awareness as they continue to grieve.
“It’s always a battle,” Shaquil said of their family’s emotional journey during a July 20 appearance on Good Morning America. “It’s always a struggle. It don’t get no easier, but it’s something that we’ve been managing, dealing with—just talking with each other and talking to our families, talking to friends.”
The NFL player—who shares son Shaquil Jr., 13, and Braylon, 12, and daughters Aaliyah, 10, Allanah, 17 months, and 1-month-old Amaiah Marie with Jordanna—emphasized that they also have these conversations with their kids to make sure “they’re doing OK.”
For the couple, who tied the knot in 2012, having their community by their side has helped them “keep moving on and healing in a proper way.”
Looking back, Shaquil admitted that he and Jordanna didn’t take the “basic step” in pool safety by adding a barrier around the water.
“We didn’t even have a gate that was protecting the pool, so that was the main thing,” he explained. “We had door sensors, but we got annoyed—the kids going in and out all the time, so we ended up turning the door sensors off.”
He noted that on the morning of the drowning in April 2023, they had accidentally left the gate by the stairs that led to the pool open, and the door alarms had been turned off.
Reflecting on Arrayah’s tragic death, the athlete shared that they didn’t know that “life vests and flotation devices made a false sense of security for the babies.”
He noted that little ones may think they can swim now because they are always wearing a life vest. Moving forward, he added that he and Jordan have prepared for “the worst-case scenario.”
Since their daughter’s passing, Shaquil and Jordanna have been more proactive with their kids. In June, the latter revealed that their 17-month-old daughter Allanah had graduated from Infant Swimming Resource lessons, where babies learn how to survive in the water.
She shared a snap of their toddler with a medal, writing, “so proud of our Allanah girl.”
