Support NeoGAF

[Adam Blade]

ABC

De'Antre Turman, a 16-year-old high school football player from Union City, died from a neck injury in a Friday night pre-season game.

A 16-year-old football player who reportedly had received a scholarship to play at the University of Kentucky died after breaking his neck in what was described as a routine tackle during a scrimmage game.

De'Antre Turman, of Creekside High School in Union City, Ga., was playing in a scrimmage game on Friday when he tackled another player. Onlookers said immediately after the tackle Turman went limp. Two paramedics on the field immediately responded, but Turman reportedly wasn't breathing.

Although an ambulance was immediately called, it did not arrive for 15 minutes according to bystanders.

"Time was just fading," said Glenn Ford, who coached Turman at previous football camps and was on the sidelines during the game. "It was just fading away to the point where we were just waiting and it just took a while for somebody to get there."

Turman, a 5-foot-11, 164-pound defensive back who was named the Top Defensive Back at MVP Camp, was pronounced dead at Grady Memorial Hospital.

The Fulton County Cornor's office concluded Saturday evening that Turman died due to a fractured third vertebrae from blunt force trauma.

Ford said Turman's initial tackle didn't look like anything out of the ordinary but "just a regular play."

"Football was his medicine," Ford said.

Turman had received a scholarship offer from Kentucky in June, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.

Dr. Daniel Sciubba, an assistant professor of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, said that when football players run with enough speed they can become severely injured during a tackle, even if the play appears completely ordinary from the sidelines.

"It can be a very freak accident," Sciubba said. "It's just the fact that people are hitting each other as hard as they can and [the neck] area is not immobilized."

Sciubba likens these tackles that force the players' bodies through tremendous deceleration to "hitting a brick wall." Even if players are wearing the right protective gear they can still be gravely injured.

Sciubba, who did not treat Turman, also said a fractured vertebrae higher in the spine and closer to the brain and can lead to a serious injury since it can result in the paralysis of the arms or lungs.

Football has come under increased scrutiny in recent years after studies, including one from the National Institute of Health, have shown how numerous tackles and hits can affect a player's health long-term neurological health.

Some experts have pointed to players becoming stronger and faster and the tackles and hits becoming more violent as one reason for an increase in these injuries.

"Despite improvements in technology and equipment and modifications to rules in the game on both the pro and amateur level, there's just a rougher style of play now than in the past," said Dr. Jaime Levine, the medical director of brain injury rehabilitation with the Rusk Institute in New York.

According to ESPN statistics, from 1979 to 2011, the typical top-five offensive tackle enlarged from an average of 6-foot-4, 264 pounds to 6-foot-6, 314 pounds. From 1979 to 2011, NFL-bound centers grew from an average 6-foot-3, 242 pounds to 6-foot-4, 304 pounds.

"Size and physical conditioning techniques in sports at all levels have evolved to create an intense athlete," Levine said. "They're able to create more force, power and speed than ever before and that leads to harder hits and a greater number of hits."

According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research's 2012 Annual Survey of Catastrophic Football Injuries, the majority of catastrophic injuries for football players occur while playing defense. Since 1977 there have been 228 players with permanent cervical cord injuries on the defensive side of the ball and 55 on the offensive side.

Turman was considered a top college football prospect and had won Top Defensive Back at Atlanta's MVP camp in June.

 

[Arkos]

Oh man that's terrible.

I was just listening to the night show on ESPN radio and Mark Schlereth was being very unreasonable about the whole violence in football issue. He made it sound like doctors didn't necessarily know in the 90s that dudes getting smashed in the head repeatedly can be bad for you.

I love my American football but shit needs to change, it's getting to the point where I actually start to feel uncomfortable watching games sometimes. Because I'm afraid I'll see this.

Condolences

 

[Narag]

I love my American football but shit needs to change, it's getting to the point where I actually start to feel uncomfortable watching games sometimes. Because I'm afraid I'll see this.

I cringe nowadays on hard hits when people are slow to get up.

 

[Feep]

I cringe nowadays on hard hits when people are slow to get up.

I also feel bad for the guy who made the hit. That's a rough thing to live with.

Paradoxically, a proposed solution for a lot of these hits would be to go back to a soft, leather-style helmet. As is, the players use their protected heads as battering rams.

 

[xbhaskarx]

One day letting your kid play tackle football will get CPS called on you.

 

[Heysoos]

Sometimes the coaches can preach and teach proper tackling form all they want, if it goes in one ear and out the other. My high school, hell junior high too, coaches put a lot of emphasis on proper tackling form, yet there were still so many that ignored this. I guess they feel like the helmet makes them invincible. Sad story and such a young age.

 

[obijkenobi]

Sometimes the coaches can preach and teach proper tackling form all they want, if it goes in one ear and out the other. My high school, hell junior high too, coaches put a lot of emphasis on proper tackling form, yet there were still so many that ignored this. I guess they feel like the helmet makes them invincible. Sad story and such a young age.

Part of the problem is this:

According to ESPN statistics, from 1979 to 2011, the typical top-five offensive tackle enlarged from an average of 6-foot-4, 264 pounds to 6-foot-6, 314 pounds. From 1979 to 2011, NFL-bound centers grew from an average 6-foot-3, 242 pounds to 6-foot-4, 304 pounds.

Players are so just so big and fast now

 

[Cotton McKnight]

ABC

Wow, at this rate I will be joining my wife in never letting my kid play a violent sport (makes me cringe, I never got hurt playing football, but I did have a career ending concussion in hockey and my wife always reminds me about it)....

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

So sad.

If I ever have a boy, I'll never let him play football.

 

[akachan ningen]

sports!

But helmet touch is especially dangerous. Everyone should know this by know but sports fans sweep it under the rug because they love watching those big tackles right? Is that one of the main appeals of football? It can't just be the nice catches right?

 

[Burt]

sports!

But helmet touch is especially dangerous. Everyone should know this by know but sports fans sweep it under the rug because they love watching those big tackles right? Is that one of the main appeals of football? It can't just be the nice catches right?

Yes, I love watching big hits. Seeing moments like this live and with other people makes for some of the most unforgettable sports experiences there are.

High horse all you want.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

Ouch, kinda scary with my brother playing collegieate football.

 

[DominoKid]

unfortunate.

Yes, I love watching big hits. Seeing moments like this live and with other people makes for some of the most unforgettable sports experiences there are.

High horse all you want.

the big hits make it beautiful.. i dread the continued softening of the game.

 

[terribletwo]

That's awful. I'm also kind of surprised that pitchers in baseball don't die more often from taking a line drive to really any part of the upper body

e: that reggie bush hit could probably break his ribs, maybe puncture a lung, but it wasn't head to head

 

[potam]

So sad.

If I ever have a boy, I'll never let him play football.

Oh yeah? Mine's not even leaving the house.

Actually, I'm not even going to have a child since the world is full of scaries and ouchies.

 

[akachan ningen]

Yes, I love watching big hits. Seeing moments like this live and with other people makes for some of the most unforgettable sports experiences there are.

High horse all you want.

I don't care if you guys like that sort of thing. But the kids who are just getting into football (or maybe getting pushed into football) should know about the dark reality of the game.

Someone in that dead kid's life did not do their job.

 

[Gettysburger]

Absolutely tragic. My mom didn't want me playing football in Jr. High, makes sense why.

 

[ari]

I don't care if you guys like that sort of thing. But the kids who are just getting into football (or maybe getting pushed into football) should know about the dark reality of the game.

Someone in that dead kid's life did not do their job.

You dont know anyone who plays the game of football personally do you?

 

[nateeasy]

An injury like this is extremely rare. Just like dying from getting beamed with a baseball. No need to over react. He was more likely to die in the car ride to the game then in the game.

 

[potam]

An injury like this is extremely rare. Just like dying from getting beamed with a baseball. No need to over react. He was more likely to die in the car ride to the game then in the game.

No. I'd rather act like a holier-than-though pseudointellectual and make people feel bad for enjoying physical activities.

 

[akachan ningen]

You dont know anyone who plays the game of football personally do you?

Why don't you skip the foreplay and just tell me what big insight I'm supposed to receive by knowing someone who plays football?

 

[Odoul]

Heart goes out to his family and the other player involved in the tackle.

All I played was HS ball and my knees are shot shit.

I love the game, but I wouldn't want any hypothetical son playing it. Not when Prince Fielder is pushing 3 bills and stealing money.

 

[IISANDERII]

Saw this on CNN today. Included in the story was the mention that this is the 4th fatality this summer for high school football players. And it's still only the fucking preseason.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Dang, that's tragic.

 

[Veritas_]

Why don't you skip the foreplay and just tell me what big insight I'm supposed to receive by knowing someone who plays football?

I think he was referring to this statement.

Someone in that dead kid's life did not do their job.

When I played, both in pee-wee league and in high school, we were constantly drilled on proper tackling technique - keep the head up, never spear an opponent. It wasn't a lack of proper coaching. The article makes it out so seem like a freak accident, and it may well be, but most player injuries (at the high school level) are kids acting like idiots trying to harpoon each other head first.

 

[akachan ningen]

I think he was referring to this statement.



When I played, both in pee-wee league and in high school, we were constantly drilled on proper tackling technique - keep the head up, never spear an opponent. It wasn't a lack of proper coaching. The article makes it out so seem like a freak accident, and it may well be, but most player injuries (at the high school level) are kids acting like idiots trying to harpoon each other head first.

I'm not talking about proper technique. I'm talking about making the kids aware of the sort of injuries and deaths that can happen in this sport. They should know the statistics as compared to other sports. They don't even have a chance to make an educated decision if they don't know the basics.