The death of an Alabama teenager during a high school football game has prompted renewed scrutiny of the safety of participants in America’s favorite sport on campus.
Caden Tellier, 16, died at a hospital after suffering a “serious” brain injury during Friday night’s game between John T Morgan Academy and visiting Southern Academy in Selma.
Tellier is at least the fourth death among high school football players in recent weeks, following three others who died from medical emergencies — including heat exhaustion — in Alabama, Kansas and Virginia.
The principal of Morgan Academy, a private religious school where Tellier played quarterback, said his community was devastated by the teenager’s death.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that Caden Tellier has gone to be with his Lord and Savior. Caden loved the Lord with all his heart and was a shining light every day he graced the halls of Morgan Academy. He was a student, a friend, an athlete and most importantly a follower of Christ,” Bryan Oliver said in a statement, reported by WSFA TV.
“There are no words to describe how we feel as a school community and family. Caden will never be forgotten for who he was and what he meant to Morgan Academy.”
Tellier’s parents released their own statement. “Our boy, Caden Tellier, has met Jesus face to face. Everyone who knows Caden has known kindness, generosity and love, and true to his nature, he gives of himself once again,” they said.
Alabama officials said Tellier was injured in the school’s season opener and taken in critical condition to a hospital, where he died. No further details were available Monday about the cause of the injury.
Tellier’s death came the same day the Guardian published an article by two experts on youth sports participation questioning whether high school and college football was safe – or “morally tenable.”
“The brutal fact (is) that every time we watch a football game, we are actually witnessing players suffering life-changing head trauma – an injury that is essentially invisible to us because it occurs inside the helmet and the skull,” said professors Nathan Kalman-Lamb of the University of New Brunswick and Derek Silva of King’s University College.
“We know that for every 2.6 years of football participation, the risk of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) doubles, meaning that even children and high school players routinely suffer life-threatening injuries on the field, a reality we could reasonably characterize as a form of child abuse.
“As the planet continues to warm, conditions on football pitches continue to deteriorate and children are left behind, we are faced with a simple and straightforward question: is this sport morally sustainable?”
The professors are co-authors of The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game, which will be published in December.
Excessive heat was believed to be a contributing factor in the deaths of three other teenage players following medical emergencies this month.
Ovet Gomez-Regalado, 15, collapsed during a practice session at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Kansas on August 14 and died two days later at a hospital.
His deaths follow those of Semaj Wilkins, 14, in New Brockton, Alabama, on August 13, and Javion Taylor, 15, in Hopewell, Virginia, eight days earlier.
