FanNation - The Republic of Sport

UCF running back Brandon Davis became the second UCF player to collapse during workouts this year. Davis was taken to the hospital, where tests apparently showed kidney failure and dehydration. Wide receiver Ereck Plancher died after an offseason workout in March.

This worries me. I don't want to pass judgment or hold the university or the coaching staff responsible if they didn't, in fact, cause these incidents. But when two young players collapse during workouts for the same team in a short period of time, people need to start asking questions. For example, if the conditioning regime was really under close watch following Plancher's death, would Davis have been under such physical stress that he collapsed? Or is Davis' survival a direct result of the coaches and trainers being more proactive when a player is obviously under duress?

Several of Plancher's teammates told reporters and investigators that coaches didn't do nearly enough to prevent or treat Plancher's symptoms. Plancher had a sickle-cell trait that should've required special precautions in conditioning workouts, precautions the UCF coaching staff allegedly did not follow. 

Davis' mother told reporters he had no fluid in his body when he was taken to the hospital, allegedly because the coaching staff did not allow enough water breaks during the strenuous workout session. You'd think that after one of their players died, they'd be especially conscientious about making sure it wouldn't happen again. Obviously I don't know the entire story, but it doesn't seem like that's the case. 

I understand that football players must be conditioned to withstand physical exertion in all conditions for extended periods of time. What I don't understand is why anyone would think that pushing players to, or even beyond, the point of collapse is beneficial. Players need to be tough, but there's a difference between pushing them to be tough and pushing them beyond what is reasonable or healthy. It's not only terrible for players like Davis and Plancher; it's also bad for the entire team. Two of Plancher's teammates and close friends, James Jamison and Jevaughn Reams, left the team after Plancher's death. Do you blame them? Would you want to keep running suicide sprints if you had to literally watch your teammates dropping like flies around you?

Football is a physically and mentally taxing game. To cultivate players who are physically and mentally tough, coaches must also be tough. But there's a very, very distinct line between pushing your players to be better and stronger, and pushing them until they land in the hospital or in the grave. Good coaches recognize and respect that line, and they don't cross it. 

College football is, for better or worse, a business based on winning games and even though it might not seem like it to coaches who lose their jobs after poor seasons, winning is not everything. Running your players into the ground is not going to take you to the next level. They can't win games for you on the field if they're in the hospital hooked up to IVs - or worse - because they weren't given adequate water breaks. 

It's possible that the UCF workouts were not significantly more brutal than those at any other university. It's possible that Davis' kidney failure was something genetic that was exacerbated by the intensity of the practice, just as Plancher's death was, at least in part, caused by his sickle cell trait.

But whether UCF simply needs to be more cognizant of its players' special health conditions and cater to them to ensure their well-being, or whether the school needs to seriously investigate the coaching staff and their training methods, the bottom line is that something must change. Every student-athlete deserves to practice and play in a safe environment, for coaches who put a premium on the health and well-being of their players. That's not optional. It's a matter of life and death.