by Irvin Muchnick
Concussion Inc. has been following up — all by ourselves — on the most recent death in college football: 19-year-old Braeden Bradforth, who collapsed following a practice in August at Garden City Community College in Kansas.
See the links below. Bradforth is non-traumatic conditioning/practice fatality No. 36 in college football this century, when you include all levels. (Some of the past articles here have gotten the confirmed number slightly wrong. To clarify, there have been 33 such deaths documented at National Collegiate Athletic Association schools, plus three others from National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics institutions and junior colleges.)
Tomorrow night undefeated Garden City plays East Mississippi of Scooba in the national junior college championship game.
Two days after that, Garden City head coach and assistant athletic director Jeff Sims will take over the football program at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. By my count, this will be his 12th assistant or head college coaching position (including two separate stints on the staff at Indiana University).
After Bradforth’s death, the mainstream media stood pat with the assurance by Coach — not Dr. — Sims that his player’s passing was not football-related. This assertion was questionable, to say the least. The practice session, the first of the season for Garden City, took place in the heat and at altitude. There is much about the control of information behind the scenes that I hope to be in position to report shortly.
Most tellingly, there is still no public autopsy report. We’re now at 118 days and counting.
But the Garden City Broncbusters are in the championship game.
And Jeff Sims is moving on. Again.
PREVIOUSLY:
Published August 3rd, 2018
Published August 9th, 2018
Published November 14th, 2018