College Football Hit With Another Tragic Death

The death of a Western Carolina University football player in a voluntary offseason practice yesterday may not be sickle-cell related. It's early, no medical inquiry has been done yet, and any number of factors could have contributed to the death of Ja'Quayvin Smalls. What it does remind me of is the sporadic but tragic yield of the college football season: heat-related deaths that to some degree are completely preventable, especially when it comes to players with undiagnosed cases of sickle-cell anemia.

The trait, which affects an estimated eight percent of the country's African-American population, causes a condition known as exertional sickling. In as little as two minutes of intense exercise, red blood cells can contort from their normal disc shape into a crescent shape, or the sickle of the syndrome's name. This occludes blood flow in athletes affected by sickle-cell anemia, and when this happens, athletes in any sport can die very quickly.

This was precisely the case with Rice football player Dale Lloyd II, who died in 2006 after a workout. Lloyd's death and the subsequent lawsuit filed by his family got Rice to test all of their athletes for sickle cell; a similar case changed policy at Missouri after the death of Aaron O'Neal in 2005. (It should be mentioned that sickle cell in O'Neal's case was not the official cause of death. Outside experts brought in at the trial did suggest it could have been a contributing factor, however.) Sickle cell was also a factor in the death of UCF football player Ereck Plancher, who collapsed and died following a March 2008 conditioning drill.

The list goes on, but it really doesn't have to continue. Sixty-four percent of schools in 2006 already tested for the trait; what the other 36 percent were doing at the time in not testing is anyone's guess. The cost of a sickle cell test is around $40 total, far less than the cost of a good pair of shoulder pads, and certainly less than the attorney's fees from defending the inevitable negligence lawsuit filed when a player with the trait dies in the care and custodianship of your football program. It's not just good medical practice; in litigious and cash-strapped times, it makes good economic sense for universities, too.

That math is known. The tragedy of losing someone so young to something that could be spotted with a blood test, however, is incalculable.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.