NFL player dies shortly after preseason game

CNN reports:

Thomas Herrion, an offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers football team, collapsed and died Sunday morning, shortly after the team played the Denver Broncos in a preseason game.

Players had finished listening to coach Mike Nolan address them in a post-game meeting in the team's locker room, when 23-year-old Herrion, a 6-foot-3, 310-pound first-year player, collapsed. Medics administered CPR on him and took him to an ambulance that rushed him to a nearby hospital.

About three hours later, 49ers spokesman Aaron Salkin confirmed that Herrion had died. The cause of death was not immediately known.

It's tragic that these things still happen occasionally, even to HS players and 8-year olds, despite all the accumulated medical knowledge and advances in emergency equipment and drugs.  I'm sure everyone reading this feels for the family of this young man.

It might prove to be something else altogether, but it's most likely dehydration or overexertion. It might also have something to do with a 310 lb person trying to move rapidly.

Something of which I'm sure GT's team physician and trainers are well aware:

On Saturday night in Denver, temperatures were in the mid-60s with 50 percent humidity, although experts say heatstroke can occur even in cool conditions.

Keep this in mind when working in your yard or exercising -- especially if you're closer to 3X this young man's age and not in nearly as good shape. When you don't feel quite right, take a break. You've got the rest of your life to finish whatever you're doing, and you want that to be as long a time as possible.