{"id":837239,"date":"2026-08-01T06:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837239\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T06:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:26:22","slug":"stringers-death-led-to-cold-tubs-near-every-nfl-practice-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837239\/","title":{"rendered":"Stringer’s death led to cold tubs near every NFL practice field"},"content":{"rendered":"

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) \u2014 Korey Stringer\u2019s death<\/a> from heat stroke in 2001 after he collapsed at practice with the Minnesota Vikings prompted many changes to safety protocols across all levels of sports.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no lesson learned more vital than this: Cool first, transport second.<\/p>\n

Almost an hour and a half passed from when Stringer exited a blocking drill during training camp and arrived by ambulance at a hospital with a core body temperature of 108.8 degrees Fahrenheit. <\/p>\n

Though he was moved to an air-conditioned trailer by the practice field that morning in Mankato, Minnesota, the lack of effective diagnosis and treatment by the team\u2019s medical staff during that time made his outlook all the more dire. About 15 hours after he collapsed, Stringer was pronounced dead, the only known NFL<\/a> player to die from exertional heat stroke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been an expert witness in 85 court cases of people dying from heat stroke, and in every single one the person didn\u2019t need to die if they were properly treated and cooled,\u201d said Douglas Casa, the executive director of the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut that was established in 2010 as part of the settlement of the wrongful death lawsuit his family brought against the league. \u201cWith a $150 tub of ice and water, these people would still be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casa got connected with Stringer\u2019s widow, Kelci Stringer, and agent, Jimmy Gould, through the litigation. The professor of kinesiology had a personal interest in the subject of heat safety, from his own brush with death at age 16 while running a 10-kilometer race at the Empire State Games in New York. <\/p>\n

Casa collapsed on the final lap with 200 meters remaining, got back up and fell again with about 80 meters to go. He was unconscious for two hours. <\/p>\n

Fortunately, a quick-thinking physician placed him in a cold water immersion tub. Though that came after he was taken to a hospital, the effective on-site care he received from an athletic trainer and in the ambulance from emergency medical technicians gave him a fighting chance to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Korey had gone in a cold immersion tub, we would not be chatting right now,\u201d Casa said in a recent interview. \u201cHe would\u2019ve had dinner with his teammates that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casa, who is on the NFL\u2019s general medical committee, regularly advises the league on player safety matters. The mandatory presence of cold tubs near the practice fields for every team, one of many protocols enhanced in the 25 years since Stringer\u2019s death, can be traced to the work that\u2019s been done in his honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I tell Korey\u2019s story, it takes it from such a sad, morbid place to a place of such action,\u201d Kelci Stringer said. \u201cIt\u2019s better to be proactive than reactive.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NFL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAGAN, Minn. (AP) \u2014 Korey Stringer\u2019s death from heat stroke in 2001 after he collapsed at practice with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[24017,64,63,2276,206863,409552,596,409551,409550,5387,1239,9287,593,6672,85],"class_list":["post-837239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-athlete-injuries","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-state-wire","tag-douglas-casa","tag-football","tag-jimmy-gould","tag-korey-stringer","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-mn-state-wire","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}