Officials Made Difficult Choice After Lucas’ Death

There is no blueprint to follow when the playing field becomes a place of death, as it did Sunday at Staples Center for Avenger lineman Al Lucas.

“There’s no manual on this,” said Casey Wasserman, owner of the Arena Football League team. “It’s a tough thing. There’s lots of emotion involved.

“We sort of set the precedent for team sports. I think we did everything we should have done and made the best decision with the information we had, with the player and his family foremost in our minds.”

Lucas, 26, suffered an apparent spinal injury while making a tackle during the first quarter of the Avengers’ game against the New York Dragons. After he didn’t respond to on-field treatment, his motionless body was taken to California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he was pronounced dead at 1:28 p.m.

The game resumed after Lucas was hurt, and, after the normal halftime break, players and officials returned to the field for the third quarter. At that point, they knew only that Lucas was seriously injured.

League and team officials were told of Lucas’ death during the third quarter, AFL Commissioner David Baker said. He did not suspend the game because the Avengers couldn’t immediately reach Lucas’ family in Georgia and the Avengers wanted family members to get the news from a team spokesman, not secondhand.

“The most important thing was, once we knew, to get hold of the family,” Wasserman said. “God forbid that they would have found out from anybody but me or the doctor.”

That, according to Wasserman, made not canceling the game a “pretty easy” decision.

“If you canceled the game, you’re making a statement,” he said. “It took a long time to get a hold of his wife and family.”

Baker had been watching his son’s spring scrimmage at USC and scrambled to Staples Center after Wasserman called him with news of Lucas’ injury. He arrived minutes before the first half ended.

“We got the two coaches together and advised them there had been a serious injury and advised them to talk to the teams,” Baker said Monday. “While they did that, I talked to the [on-field] officials.

“The coaches told me players wanted to continue. I’m guessing about five to 10 minutes chronologically after they went onto the field, we were advised the doctors had pronounced him dead. At that point in time, we had again to think through whatever precedents there might have been.

“The NFL, to the best of our knowledge, had never called a game. NASCAR, if someone passes, they finish the race. An amusement park, if somebody is killed, they don’t close the park, they close the ride.”

Baker also said he was concerned announcing Lucas’ death would upset children and parents in the crowd. “I’m not sure the best way to find out about that is through the public-address announcer,” Baker said.

Local auto racing and horse racing tracks have handled their tragedies in different ways.

Sprint car driver Casey Diemert of Roseburg, Ore., died in a crash during practice hours before the grand opening of Irwindale Speedway, on March 27, 1999, but the program went on as scheduled and no announcement was made to the crowd. Track officials reportedly said they didn’t want to say anything because they weren’t sure his parents had been notified, but both parents were at the track.

In contrast, Fairplex Park in Pomona canceled most of its horse racing program on Sept. 9, 1999, after jockey J.C. Gonzalez was trampled to death by horses in a spill in the fifth race.

No player has been declared dead on the field of play in North America’s professional ball-and-bat sports, but several have died hours or days later from injuries they incurred during games.

Detroit Lion receiver Chuck Hughes was declared dead after a 1971 game in which he suffered a heart attack and collapsed. Cleveland Indian shortstop Ray Chapman died a day after he was hit in the head by a pitch from New York Yankee pitcher Carl Mays in 1920, and Minnesota North Stars forward Bill Masterton died 27 hours after he fell backward and struck his bare head against the ice on Jan. 11, 1968.

Withholding news of Lucas’ death until his family was notified was the right course, Baker said. “In an electronic age, where games are on satellite TV, radio and the Internet, suspending the game is, in itself, an announcement,” Baker said.

“I believe we did the right thing and I know the decision was made in the best interest of all the parties involved.”

Lucas’ death was kept from radio and TV broadcasters until they went off the air, said Steve Simpson, general manager and vice president of FSN West and FSN West 2. Later, FSN West 2 canceled a replay of the game that was to air at 11 p.m. and showed a poker competition.

“Given [Sunday’s] tragic occurrence, I thought that it would be inappropriate and in poor taste to re-air the Avengers’ game [Sunday] night as we were scheduled to do,” Simpson said. “I apologize to our viewers, but I thought that showing sensitivity to the Lucas family and the team outweighed our previous plans. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and teammates.”

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Times staff writer Chris Foster contributed to this report.