Saturday, August 22, 2009

A family tragedy


My sense of the absurd has always gotten me into trouble. It may again very soon.

There was a local story making the news in Mayberry this week. A 13 year old boy died suddenly during football practice.

Perhaps a preventable tragedy, but one none the less. The boy's father died too young of a heart attack and the 8th grader was a great comfort to his mother. My sincere condolences to his family.

So what, you're thinking. Why shouldn't he want to play football. His friends play, television programming is fixated on the sport, it's the American game right? Collateral damage happens.

I am going to completely overlook the fact the lad was 6'2'', and 370 pounds. (That is not a typo). I make no judgements. I don't know the child or anything relevant about him, but I do suspect he probably wasn't much of an athlete, as conditioning may have been lacking.

To me the real tragedy is that this boy was allowed to play with kids his own age. This man amongst boys could have/would have seriously hurt someone by falling on them. Opposing quarterbacks. Toast. Other linemen, flattened.

To my way of looking at this story, a crime was committed by the coaching staff.

Toad

4 comments:

Dumbwit Tellher said...

What an incredibly sad, tragic accident. But I agree, the true tragedy here is that this still child was 370 lbs. With his father's history I would of been on red alert. He was tall, yes..but 370 lbs.?! And..as you said, to be allowed to play with other 13 year old's? Really, that is unbelievable. Can you imagine being the parent on the opposing team seeing who your child was up against. Has anyone ever spent a bit of time at even a high school Freshman campus to see the average size of the young men? Most are still so small. A real tragedy it is. Shame on the coaches!

Summer is a Verb said...

So sad...and, I shall venture that the crime began looong before football practice was ever in the pic...XXOO

David said...

It certainly is a tragedy, but I'm with DT, how a 13 year old reaches 370 pounds, even at 6'2", is beyond me.

Toad said...

In 8th grade, I was the tallest in the class at 5'10 and weighed in at150 lbs. That was some time ago though.