Fallen Gladiator Won’t Be Forgotten

The news of Minnesota Viking offensive tackle Korey Stringer’s death from heatstroke reverberated throughout the football world Wednesday.

Former USC and Viking quarterback Sean Salisbury, a reporter for ESPN, was en route to the Vikings’ training camp at Mankato, Minn., when he learned about Stringer’s death.

Salisbury and Stringer were never teammates on the Vikings, but were acquainted through two mutual friends, Viking offensive line coach Mike Tice and former Viking offensive lineman and current Tampa Bay Buccaneer Randall McDaniel.

“Korey was a fun-loving guy with a great personality who was liked by everyone on the team,” Salisbury said.

Professional athletes are driven to push themselves to the limit, or, in Stringer’s case, beyond, according to Salisbury.

“Your ego says, ‘I’ll be darned if I’m the guy who doesn’t make it through wind sprints.’ Most athletes think that way,” Salisbury said.

Salisbury, who played for the Vikings’ Dennis Green, said the coach never has been one to put his players through back-to-back practices in full gear.

“A lot of coaches do, but not Denny,” he said.

ESPN’s Mike Golic, a former NFL defensive lineman, is coach of a Pop Warner team.

“I know what we’ll be talking about today,” he said. “Every player and every parent is going to want to know what happened to Korey Stringer and what can be done to prevent such tragedies.

“For one thing, we’ll make it clear that drinking water is always available. We’ll also emphasize to every player that they know their body better than anyone else and that they have to say something to a coach or someone when they feel something different than just normal fatigue.

“I know it’s tough to tell a coach you can’t do something. Some will and some won’t. I never did.”

Golic’s first year in the NFL was 1985 with the Houston Oilers.

“They were having water breaks by then, but we would have two practices a day in full gear,” he said. “Camps are still hard, but the practice sessions are not as long and there is not as much contact because rosters are limited to 80 players now and there is more concern about injuries.

“But players push themselves just as hard as they always have. Every player conditions himself to do whatever it takes and never quit. One part of the mind says stop. The other part says keep going--only five more plays, only five more wind sprints--and that is the part that usually wins out. That is what gets athletes to the pro level.

“It’s ironic. What fans admire most in professional football players is their will, their desire and their never-quit attitude. Well, it was that attitude that was partly responsible for costing Stringer his life.”

Former NFL coach Sam Wyche has a term for that.

“I’ve always called it ‘push to failure,’ ” he said. “Players push right to the point where they’ve given everything they’ve got. You see it in the weight rooms, where one player yells at another to ‘push it one more time.’

“All coaches are pretty much the same. They are constantly watching players to see if they are pushing hard enough. They’re looking for that competitiveness, that push to failure, that giving everything they got or 110% or whatever they call it. They are looking for players who are mentally tough and never give in to fatigue.

“It was Vince Lombardi who said, ‘Fatigue makes cowards of us all.’ ”

Wyche was a backup quarterback for the Washington Redskins under coach George Allen in the early 1970s.

“We’d have 2 1/2-hour or 3-hour practices in the heat with no water breaks. Coaches today give players water breaks, and I subscribed to the Paul Brown philosophy and kept practices in pads to under two hours,” he said.

Wyche said when he was the coach in Tampa Bay, where the heat and humidity were severe, he’d have a walk-through in shorts and T-shirts in the late morning hours, have meetings in the afternoon and then practice in pads at night.

Former San Francisco tight end Brent Jones, who like Wyche is a commentator for CBS, said he remembers the 108- and 109-degree days in the 49ers’ old training camp in Rocklin, Calif.

“There are so many days when you feel terrible and experience cramps and maybe heatstroke,” he said. “You never know how close you or other people have come to crossing that line.

“But you continue to push yourself. It’s that pride thing.”

Fox commentator Bill Maas, a defensive lineman who played 11 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Kansas City Chiefs, remembers hot days at the Chiefs’ former training camp in Liberty, Mo.

“My first year or two we didn’t even get water breaks,” said Maas, whose rookie season was 1984. “And we were one of the few teams who had three-a-day practices.

“Historically, going back to the Bud Grant days, the Vikings have always had one of the easiest camps.”

The Chiefs have had one of the toughest. But Maas said he never suffered from heat exhaustion, or at least he didn’t think so.

“Any player can be on the verge of heat exhaustion and not know it,” he said. “Doctors say others can see it before you’ll know you’re suffering from heat exhaustion.

“The problem these days is linemen are so big. Stringer, I believe, has been as big as 388. The fact that he came into camp at 335 or 336 brings up another issue.

“Maybe he hadn’t eaten in two or three days. Players do that to get down to the weight the team wants them to get down to. There are fines like $188 a pound for being overweight.

“Korey was probably trying to show the Vikings he was coming into camp fit.”

Former UCLA receiver Michael Young, who played 10 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Broncos and is now an executive with the Broncos, said: “It’s disturbing that something like this would happen because these days players are monitored so closely and given opportunities to have fluids at any time.

“Also, practices aren’t as physically demanding as they once were because players now come into camp in shape.

“As a player, you are mostly concerned about a blow to the head that can lead to a neck or some other kind of serious injury. Your thought process never leads you to think about heat exhaustion. Or that it could lead to death.”

The only other NFL training camp fatality is believed to be J.V. Cain, a tight end for the St. Louis Cardinals, who died of a heart attack on July 22, 1979, his 28th birthday.

Dan Dierdorf was on the field in the Cardinals’ training camp that day.

“It’s something you never forget,” Dierdorf told Dan Patrick on ESPN Radio. “Before that happened, all my energy, my whole being, was devoted to football, a game I loved. What happened to J.V. Cain made he think my priorities were askew and made me realize there were other things more important than football.

“What happened with Korey Stringer is going to have an effect on the Vikings.”

Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Assn., said: “Korey was a well-respected member of his team and a leader in his community. His work with children’s causes is an example of the personal and professional integrity he brought to the NFL.”

Callers to the Vikings on Wednesday got a recording saying that the office was closed. The recording also provided information on how to donate to Korey’s Crew, which is part of the Viking Children’s Fund.