A Tragic October for College Football
Two universities and their fans will look back on the 2010 college football season with something more than just won-loss records on their minds. For Notre Dame it was the tragic death of Declan Sullivan who was killed when the hydraulic lift he was filming from toppled over on a windy afternoon in South Bend. For Rutgers fans it was the heartbreaking site of junior defensive tackle Eric LeGrand lying motionless on the turf at Meadowlands Stadium after a life-changing collision with an Army player.
LeGrand, six-feet-two-inches tall and 270 pounds, was all football player -- big, strong, athletic, quick and nimble -- a young man gifted in many ways with a promising future ahead of him. Sullivan, the 20-year-old student videographer, was no less tough than a hard-as-nails lineman who continues to compete even though his injuries scream for him to stop. Sullivan’s tweets made it clear that he was aware that he was in a dangerous situation, yet he continued to stick it out because the team depended on him. His dedication to his job cost him his life.
Eric LeGrand had no way of knowing the terrible outcome that awaited him when he slammed head-first into the Army kick returner. His injury was the result of a convergence of forces for which two vertebrae in his neck were no match. Football is a violent game. It asks a lot of its players who, after the fun and competition are over, often pay for their playing years with a lifetime of creaky joints or worse. Football players are aware of the risks and they continue to play on. We now know that the same can be said for Declan Sullivan. He was well aware of the risks that afternoon, and he continued to play on. But there’s no way he should have been permitted to.