This week marks five years since the death of Garden City Community College football lineman Braeden Bradforth, a 19-year-old who experienced exertional heat stroke after being forced to run three dozen 50-yard sprints at high temperatures.
Then, in August 2021, 19 year-old Fort Scott Community College lineman Tirrell Williams collapsed and died after a summer practice. Heat stroke was also the cause of death.
On July 22 of this year, MidAmerica Nazarene University lineman Myzelle Law, 19, suffered what his family called "heat-related injuries." After over a week in the hospital, he died this past Sunday. Details about the events that led to Law's death are not yet known.
"Every year, at this time, like clockwork, one or more teenage boys in America drops dead before a single block or tackle," says journalist Irv Muchnick. "For a variety of reasons that we could get into, Kansas is an epicenter of this phenomenon."
- Irv Muchnick, independent journalist and author of the upcoming book "Without Helmets or Shoulder Pads: The American Way of Death in Football Conditioning"
- Sam Zeff, KCUR metro reporter
