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| Saturday, August 4 Four football deaths, no easy answers By Darren Rovell ESPN.com | ||||||||||
| EVANSTON, Ill. -- In a 10-day period in late July and early August, four young football players died either during or after practice.
But what conclusions can be drawn from these deaths are difficult to ascertain. In three cases, it appears heat was a major factor. In another, an asthma condition is being blamed.
Strenuous exercise -- certainly a prerequisite to success in any athletic endeavor -- of course was the only universal tie.
Heat stroke complications apparently took the lives of Minnesota Vikings tackle Korey
Stringer, University of Florida freshman Eraste Autin and Central Clinton
High (Ind.) junior Travis Stowers, who initially was reported to have died of a brain aneurysm but recent reports suggest his temperature reached 108 degrees.
A preliminary coroner report ruled that Northwestern safety Rashidi
Wheeler died on Friday night of bronchial asthma. Although he had suffered with the respiratory disorder for years, Wheeler had successfully practiced and played with asthma and never needed anything more than his inhaler.
"Anybody who is observant and reads the newspapers has got to feel somewhat
mystified by what's occurred at (the University of) Florida, with the
Minnesota Vikings, and now with us," Northwestern athletics director Rick Taylor said.
Taylor said if there's a common denominator among the deaths, it's man's natural instinct to push himself beyond the limits.
"It's stupid," Taylor said. "But we want to prove ourselves."
The drive to reach a maximum fitness level in preparation for game play is
obviously not a new goal amongst players and coaches. There's a reason why
athletes take supplements to enhance performance, why one of the walls in
Northwestern's Coon Strength and Conditioning Center says "Determine to
Prevail," and why a sticker on the hammer chest press in the weight room
reads "Relentless."
But, on Friday -- the day Wheeler collapsed and died -- he was running head
coach Randy Walker's typical sprint drills.
Those drills include 10 100-yard dashes, with 15 seconds of rest in between; eight 80-yard
dashes, with 13 seconds of rest; six 60-yard dashes, with nine seconds of rest;
and four 40's, with seven seconds of recovery. Wheeler never made it to the
line to start his set of 40's.
"I've been involved with (the drill) for 20 years," said Walker, who ran them as a running back at Miami University from 1973-75. "I ran that very thing and I believe it to be a great indicator of recovery ability."
"I'm completely confident of what we ask," said Walker, when asked if he's
going to have second thoughts when it's time to run the drill next week. "I
don't think it's extraordinary. I tell our kids all the time, I don't think
we have the lock on hard work in Division I football...But I think
everybody's out there working pretty hard right now."
If schools or teams start to think about compromising their work ethic, they
can be passed by their competitors.
"We put a lot of emphasis on working hard, but we need to work on educating
athletes on the dangers of overtraining," said Illinois football coach Ron
Turner at the Big 10 Conference media day earlier this week.
Meanwhile, it's school and team officials that, in supervised workouts, have
to set up the parameters.
Walker admits that sometimes he is guilty of pushing his athletes as far as
they can possibly go.
"Michael (Jordan) said his dad saw in him things that he didn't see in
himself," Walker said. "And I think that's why we (push our players). I see
great things in these guys."
Having more stringent rules might not have saved Wheeler's life. Taylor said that although Northwestern has a policy against working
out in extremely hot conditions, as well as a policy against playing during
lightning, a policy that would rule out asthmatics as members of the team is
not in the plans. Approximately 10 current players are asthmatics, according
to Northwestern head trainer Tory Aggeler.
Purdue coach Joe Tiller said that "common sense prevails in workouts"
since "bodies are bigger and you are dealing with different body types."
Korey Stringer might have been 6-foot-4 and 335 pounds, but the safety
Wheeler was comparatively an average-sized guy at 6-foot-1, 212 pounds.
"I think people are looking for answers and they shouldn't be looking to us,
because we don't have them," Taylor said.
Unfortunately, in Wheeler's case especially, not many people do. Darren Rovell, who is a staff writer for ESPN.com, can be reached at Darren.rovell@espn.com. |
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