The three were watching the Cincinnati Bengals play the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. They watched the game from an apartment at 910 Second Ave. N.

“My brothers were like the biggest Chiefs fans you could think of,” Mack, of Fort Dodge, recalled on Tuesday. “They loved football. They loved football. Kansas City Chiefs — they loved the Chiefs.”

Mack’s brother-in-law was Marion Rhodes. Mack and the two brothers grew up in Kansas City before eventually moving to Fort Dodge around 2008.

Watching sports together, whether it was football or basketball, was something they enjoyed.

That night, Mack was working on the computer during the game releasing promotional videos of their hip-hop group, 6 Gang, on social media.

Then Mack started not to feel well.

“My head was hurting, so I got up and said I am going home, I love you all, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Mack said. “We were watching the Chiefs game, I believe the score was like 40 something to 10. That’s honestly my last memory of my brothers. The last time I heard their voice, when they told me they loved me as I was walking out the door.”

A few hours later, just after midnight, Mack received a phone call from his sister.

“Marion’s wife called me and I couldn’t really understand her,” Mack said. “I jumped up out of bed and came as fast as I could. When I came everything was blocked off — my brothers were gone.”

Fort Dodge police responded to the area of North Ninth Street and Third Avenue North at 12:03 a.m., where they found the Rhodes brothers lying in an alley behind their apartment. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

“No one could plan for something like this,” Mack said. “My brothers’ lives was not over yet. They were taken from us too early, too soon. Their job was not done. They still had work to do.”

Mack said he’s not sure why someone would have wanted to harm them.

“Honestly I don’t know,” Mack said. “The only thing I can think of is jealousy. It could have been a jealousy thing. I don’t know anything myself besides the fact that they are gone and I can never talk to them again.”

He said the Rhodes brothers used to tell him everything.

“Besides that my brothers are never the type to go through this type of thing of having a beef with someone and not know it,” Mack said. “Usually, if we had a problem with someone I would know, and I don’t know anything, so that’s the problem.”

Marion Rhodes was a role model for Mack, he said.

“Marion raised me,” Mack said. “He was like my dad since I was 12.”

Mack is 32. Marion Rhodes was 37. Eldominic Rhodes was 34.

“We went through struggles as far as us being kids and teenagers on our own,” Mack said. “Everything I know as far as being a man came from them. They made it to where I didn’t have to struggle as much. They helped me when my parents weren’t there. They were the parents in the situation. My sisters were like my mother. They gave me structure in everything.”

The brothers will be remembered for their sense of humor.

“One that always sticks out — my family went through a lot of losing people,” Mack said. “Whenever I needed structure I could look to either of my brothers to make me feel better. They were always able to make you smile or laugh. Even if you were having a bad time, they figured out a way to make it better.”

This past July, Mack lost a cousin and an aunt within the same week.

The brothers helped him through that time.

“With the memories that make you cry, they always thought of something one of our relatives did to make us laugh and we would sit back and think on that and laugh some more,” Mack said.

He added, “They always wanted us to smile. Even when we were going through the worst, as long as we could smile it was like we were still living and working to get out of the struggle.”

Music brought everyone together.

“Marion, my cousin, Jamal, and I we were a group called 6 Gang, traveled all over the United States performing our music,” Mack said. “Trying to get out the struggle, trying to give the youth a voice to be able speak on their own behalf. Just letting people know they can speak. There’s nothing wrong with speaking. That’s what we did and that’s what we do.”

Mack said he will continue to follow his passion for music.

“I am still working, even though I lost them,” he said. “And they will live on through me and our music.”