658...Danger In Sports

Football season is now in full swing in all countries that give a damn about the sport, the NAFTA 3. It is a little over 8 years since Korey Stringer, a 305 pound lineman for the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL died of multiple organ failure caused by heatstroke on a day when the temperature was Wayne Gretzky degrees at 11 30 in the morning.

In Post 608...My Third Favourite Sport Is Cheerleading I wrote about the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, an American organization that indicated that cheerleading was the most dangerous sport for women in both college and high schools by a margin of ten. This same organization tells Sports Illustrated's Selena Roberts that in the last decade there have been 28 heatstroke deaths in the States among football players including 6 last years.

This is f'ing crazy.

The big reason seems to be that football coaches, particularly at the lower levels, use water or deprivation of water, as a weapon, a punishment tool.

An example thereof is a case going to court on the 31st of August in Louisville, Kentucky. The defendant is Jason Stinson who is charged with reckless homicide in the death of 15 year old Max Gilpin. August 20th of 2008 Mr. Gilpin collapsed and died while being punished by running gassers with his Pleasure Ridge High School teammates after a not so productive practice. His coach is alleged to have denied Mr. Gilpin water according to witnesses who spoke to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

WFDS