A high school football player from Long Island, New York, died last night after he collided with an opponent during a football game. This tragedy marks the third time in just days that a high school football player has died after sustaining injuries on the field.
Tom Cutinella was a junior on the varsity team at Shoreham-Wading River High School. A school district spokeswoman says the guard/linebacker was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent surgery and was placed in intensive care, just hours after he reportedly collided with a player during the third quarter of a game against John Glenn High School. Sadly, he was unable to pull through.
Cutinella has been playing football since the ninth grade and was probably beyond excited to have made the varsity team this year. His family says he also played lacrosse and was a member of a peer mentoring program. In addition to being athletic, he took his studies seriously.
To call this a tragic loss is an understatement. I can't imagine how his family and friends feel at this time and our hearts go out to them.
A discussion about high school football and whether it is truly safe or needs to be modified in some way should not be necessary here. We should be able to simply focus on the heartbreaking death of this one teen. Unfortunately, his is the third death of this nature to take place in less than one week.
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On Sunday, cornerback Demario Harris Jr. of Charles Henderson High School in Alabama died after rupturing an aneurysm in his brain, according to doctors, and his family reportedly believe this was caused by getting hit and tackled during a game. And linebacker Isaiah Langston of Rolesville High School in North Carolina reportedly died after collapsing during a game last Friday. His death was related to a blood clot, according to his family.
Do you let your kids play high school football? Do these tragic deaths affect how you feel about the sport?
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