Central Florida football death back in the news on ESPN | Trapped in Dirty Jerzee

I was in the middle of watching Florida-Georgia today, and checking scores on all the sites, when my eyes lit up regarding an NCAA Division I program that should have been in big headlines for a while now, not because of actually winning football games - University of Central Florida. And finally tomorrow morning on ESPN's Outside the Lines, this story gets legs again, as it sure as hell should have weeks ago.

Remember the death of Central Florida player Ereck Plancher during a workout under the guide of the UCF staff? ESPN.com reports that an interview to air tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 2 on Outside the Lines, "a former University of Central Florida football player speaks publicly for the first time about the March 18, 2008, workout at which a teammate collapsed and died."

Former UCF player James Jamison says during his interview that Plancher, "struggled at the workout and that coaches have understated the difficulty of the drills" according to the website. The ESPN.com story also says that Jamison said during the interview that he believes "they ran a player to death."

For those who do not remember, the story was that Plancher was pronounced dead about one hour after an offseason conditioning session, led by coach head coach George O'Leary, had finished. I remember being confounded how this story went away, and how O'Leary and his staff still had jobs. I will certainly be up tomorrow morning to watch this (9 am EST, 6 am PST). Will you? Do you even care?

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November 5, 2008 08:05 PM ET

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Thanks for bringing this to the table. There's a reason athletes weren't dying during practice 20 years ago and it absolutely baffles me that this anomaly hasn't been more appropriately addressed. Of course, performance enhancers and other synthetic agents have exacerbated the frequency in recent years, but I understand this wasn't the case with Plancher. I missed the program you refer to but agree...something needs to be done. Thanks for the post.