Twenty summers ago, a healthy NFL star died after practice on a At the time of his death, Stringer had developed into one of the NFL’s best offensive linemen.
A first-round pick of the Vikings in 1995, he struggled at times to manage his weight but earned Pro Bowl honors after a stellar season at right tackle in 2000. He reported to the Vikings’ 2001 training camp in excellent shape, at 336 pounds, and seemed poised for cultural stardom.
At the time of his death, Stringer had developed into one of the NFL’s best offensive linemen.
A first-round pick of the Vikings in 1995, he struggled at times to manage his weight but earned Pro Bowl honors after a stellar season at right tackle in 2000.
He reported to the Vikings’ 2001 training camp in excellent shape, at 336 pounds, and seemed poised for cultural stardom.
At the time of his death, Stringer had developed into one of the NFL’s best offensive linemen.
A first-round pick of the Vikings in 1995, he struggled at times to manage his weight but earned Pro Bowl honors after a stellar season at right tackle in 2000.
He reported to the Vikings’ 2001 training camp in excellent shape, at 336 pounds, and seemed poised for cultural stardom.At the time of his death, Stringer had developed into one of the NFL’s best offensive linemen.
A first-round pick of the Vikings in 1995, he struggled at times to manage his weight but earned Pro Bowl honors after a stellar season at right tackle in 2000.
He reported to the Vikings’ 2001 training camp in excellent shape, at 336 pounds, and seemed poised for cultural stardom.scorching day at the Minnesota Vikings’ training camp.
The words still sting and baffle in equal measure. Korey Stringer’s sudden death at age 27 was not from a heart attack, a broken neck or an undetected genetic malady.
The offensive tackle succumbed to complications from exertional heatstroke, an avoidable and easily treated condition that sports medicine largely ignored at the time.
The 20th anniversary of Stringer’s death on Aug. 1, 2001, will bring a new round of pain to his family and friends. They will take comfort, however, in knowing that their tragedy changed the world.
Almost immediately, football programs at all levels began reevaluating outdated notions of heat conditioning, hydration and the psychology of pushing through physical distress. “It gave them permission to use common sense,” his widow, Kelci Stringer, said this summer.
The 2010 founding of the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI) — a partnership between Kelci, agent Jimmy Gould, the NFL, the University of Connecticut and Gatorade — has accelerated that progress and expanded it into new sectors.
In part because of the group’s advocacy and research, reported deaths by exertional heatstroke during sports have dropped 51% over the past decade, based on data compiled by the National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research.
A total of 38 states have changed laws or adopted new guidelines to mandate safety protocols, and an estimated 75% of high schools in the country have cold water immersion tubs available to reverse the onset of heat illness, according to Douglas Casa, chief executive officer of KSI and a professor of kinesiology at UConn.
“Any time there is a major change in how society does things, it’s typically because somebody died or got hurt in some way, shape or form,” said Korey’s brother, Kevin Stringer. “I guess Korey’s death was my family’s turn to pay that cost. It bothers me sometimes if I hear of somebody having a heat-related injury, but I know even if that happens, there is more awareness of what to do. It took a while to get there, but we did.”
At the time of his death, Stringer had developed into one of the NFL’s best offensive linemen. A first-round pick of the Vikings in 1995, he struggled at times to manage his weight but earned Pro Bowl honors after a stellar season at right tackle in 2000.
He reported to the Vikings’ 2001 training camp in excellent shape, at 336 pounds, and seemed poised for cultural stardom.
