The death of Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer on August 1, 2001 was tragic, and arguably preventable.
But Stringer’s estate generally has not been successful in imposing liability on others for the heat stroke that claimed the starting right tackle’s life.
On Monday, however, the Stringer estate scored a potentially significant victory.
According to Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com, a federal judge in Ohio ruled that helmet and shoulder pads manufacturer Riddell had a legal duty to warn Stringer that the products could contribute to heat stroke when used in hot conditions.
“The timing of this is really compelling,” Stringer family spokesman James Gould told Seifert. “Coaches all around the country, at every level, are getting their equipment ready now for camps. This really brings the issue to the forefront.”
While we agree that it’s important for coaches and players to be careful when it comes to practicing in the heat, we’re not so sure that the people who make the helmets and the shoulder pads need to tell anyone that practicing football while wearing a helmet and shoulders pads when it’s hot could make the player even hotter.
The judge nevertheless ruled that it is “reasonably foreseeable . . . that a user of [Riddell’s] helmets and shoulder pads during extremely hot and humid conditions might suffer from a heat stroke,” and that Riddell therefore “owed Stringer a duty to warn.”
A jury trial is scheduled for November 2 as to the question of whether Riddell’s failure to warn Stringer legally caused Stringer’s death.
At the trial, lawyers for Riddell undoubtedly will focus on other potential causes, such as the question of whether Stringer had been taking ephedra, a now-banned weight-loss supplement that has been linked to a variety of potential ailments.
But the real question on which many of the jurors likely will focus -- even though they technically shouldn’t -- is whether legal duties to warn replace common sense.
Regardless of the outcome, the warning label on the Riddell helmet likely will soon be as big as the decals bearing the team logos. Already, the Riddell web site contains a list of warnings long enough to induce a serious injury while merely reading them:
“WARNING: NO HELMET CAN PREVENT SERIOUS HEAD OR NECK INJURIES A PLAYER MIGHT RECEIVE WHILE PARTICIPATING IN FOOTBALL. Do not use this helmet to butt, ram or spear an opposing player. This is in violation of the football rules and such use can result in severe head or neck injuries, paralysis or death to you and possible injury to your opponent. Contact in football may result in CONCUSSION-BRAIN INJURY which no helmet can prevent. Symptoms include: loss of consciousness or memory, dizziness, headache, nausea or confusion. If you have symptoms, immediately stop playing and report them to your coach, trainer and parents. Do not return to a game or practice until all symptoms are gone and you have received medical clearance. Ignoring this warning may lead to another and more serious or fatal brain injury.”
Independent of the ongoing lawsuit, the reality is that most football teams have realized in the wake of the Stringer incident that full-pads practices should be limited, if not avoided, during the hottest periods of the day. And while we believe that players have a certain responsibility to protect themselves when using football equipment in hot conditions, we believe that the primary duty for keeping every player safe falls to the authority to which every football player at every level submits when signing up to play -- the head coach.
