Sickle Cell Trait in Football: Educating Coaches

by: McCall Parrish, AFCA & Tai M. Brown, AFCA In the past 10 years, 20 NCAA football players have lost their lives to non-traumatic football deaths. Of those 20, 16 deaths occurred in conditioning activities while the other four occurred in day one or day two of preseason football practice. The question has to be asked: Are we training our football players to death? Out of the 20 players who have died, eight of those deaths were caused by exertional sickling; complications related to having the sickle cell trait. Exertional sickling is the leading cause of death of college football players in this decade and all cases have occurred during conditioning sessions. Sickle cell trait related deaths are certainly preventable. In order to prevent this from happening, one needs to know the signs and symptoms of a sickling episode. Scott Anderson, Athletic Trainer at the University of Oklahoma,