He knew it was a bad idea even before he walked into the store. But Trulon Henry went ahead with the plan anyway. In 2003, the 18-year-old Henry and his uncle, Raefield Wright, robbed a Washington (D.C.) Safeway grocery.

The obvious question: Why?

Henry was feeling the pressure of being the man of the house. He had a willing cohort. And as a former employee, Henry had knowledge of the Safeway layout.

“It definitely, definitely, definitely didn’t work,” Henry says. “And to be honest with you, I wasn’t sure that it was going to work. I was just desperate and needed to do something.

“You don’t think as an adult yet. You don’t think two weeks down the line. You just think for the day. Being in a bad situation, you hear of a plan and you’re like, ‘Well, I’m in.’ That’s kind of like what it was.”

The mistake of his young life cost him a 60-month jail sentence. Henry spent most of his incarceration at Gilmer Federal Prison in Glenville, W.Va.

It could have been the start of a nasty downward spiral for Henry, the brother of former Illinois receiver Arrelious Benn. Instead, the spiral of a football has put him back in the good graces of his family and friends. After starring at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill., the 25-year-old defensive back enrolled at Illinois in January. He is expected to compete for a starting safety spot during training camp.

Henry’s change from convicted felon to football phenom didn’t happen overnight. And it didn’t happen without a lot of help.

First, Henry needed to learn some lessons. The hard way. After his initial conviction, Henry was sent to a prison in North Carolina. Wrong place, wrong time.

“A 19-year-old coming on a prison yard that is full of grown men, they’re going to be like, ‘Who is this chump?’” Henry says. “It was kind of like you had to prove yourself and people were going to keep picking on you until you do. Trouble was coming my way and I was trying to mind my own business. I got into a fight and, of course, they let the guy who loses stay on the compound. The guy who wins has to leave. I had to go.”

Henry was shuffled to different facilities before landing at Gilmer. There, he met an older prisoner, Tim, who gave him helpful advice.

“He said, ‘Wear your scars like jewelry and learn from them,’” Henry says. “They make you a better person and they make you a better man.”

A standout at Washington (D.C.) Woodrow Wilson, Henry found that returning to football wasn’t easy. There were court restrictions that sent him to a halfway house after he finished his prison sentence.

“Sort of what Mike Vick was in,” Henry says. “I was in one of those during the (2008) Rose Bowl. I watched the game.” (His brother, Benn, scored a touchdown against USC.)

During his time in the halfway house, Henry began making phone calls to colleges, asking for a chance to play.

“I’m making all of these phone calls, I’m talking to a few coaches,” Henry says. “They all ask what really happened in detail. Once I told them, they didn’t seem interested anymore. Or they were like, ‘We’ll call you later.’”

He didn’t have any high school tape to send out. He relied on word-of-mouth appraisals from former teammates and coaches. It made it easy for the colleges to say no.

“They didn’t want to take that gamble,” Henry says. “I didn’t blame them.”

But one person listened: College of DuPage coach Fred Fimbres. On the advice of a former Henry opponent, Fimbres gave Henry a very small chance to convince him.

“The thought of what he did and how I thought people would look at that on our campus, it did cross my mind, ‘Wow, we might be biting off more than we can chew,’ in terms of being able to deal with the public relations here,” Fimbres says. “At a commuter college, at the community college level, football’s not popular already. We’re not selling out our stadium and we’re not making money from going to the Rose Bowl. We have a different mission.”

The bottom line for Fimbres was that the player sounded sorry. Henry sounded like he knew he had done wrong.

“He just talked about wanting an opportunity,” Fimbres says. “He didn’t talk about how good he was going to play. He didn’t talk about what he had done in the past in terms of his athletic accomplishments.

“He even said, ‘I understand if it’s something you don’t want to do.’ He seemed very mature at that point to me.”

Two years and no trouble later, Fimbres is a Henry believer. He expects his former player to help Illinois immediately.

“He has a lot to offer that program,” Fimbres says. “They’re going to have a very difficult time keeping him off the football field. Trulon has a passion about learning. He has a very driven personality. Anything that they’ll throw at him there is easier than a whole bunch of stuff he’s seen in his life. He just enjoys it.”

Fimbres is cheering for Henry. At the top of his lungs.

“I’m a Trulon Henry fan,” Fimbres says.

So are Lee Ann and Phil Clary. The Downers Grove, Ill., couple became his adoptive aunt and uncle during his College of DuPage playing days. The Clarys first met Henry while serving a dinner to his junior college team. Henry talked openly to Phil Clary about his past.

“Tru’s story touched him,” Lee Ann Clary says. “We were very surprised. When you talk to Tru and you meet him, it would never occur to you that he would have had that kind of trouble.”

Like Fimbres, Lee Ann Clary is confident Henry won’t repeat his mistake.

“It is not going to happen again,” she says. “He’s a genuine, nice young man and concerned about doing the right thing and making something better for himself and for his family.”

Henry’s family includes wife Morgan and infant daughter Tatum. Morgan and Tatum spent the spring semester living in Washington, D.C., with plans to return to Champaign-Urbana in the summer.

Back at home, Morgan Henry has returned to the Safeway store that her husband once robbed. The folks at Safeway are now on Henry’s side.

“We’re glad to hear that whatever trouble he’s had, he’s worked himself out of it and he’s moving forward in a positive way,” says Craig Muckle, manager of public affairs and government relations for Safeway’s eastern division. “It sounds like he’s preparing to embark on a pretty nice opportunity at the University of Illinois, both educationally and athletically. That’s fantastic, and we’re happy to hear about that.”

This feature appears in the 2010 Athlon Sports Big Ten magazine. Click here to purchase your copy.