At the pro level, this is new. I don't remember people having cardiac arrests on their sports field during a game. Amateur, that's a different beast because there's about 300 kids that start football practice in high school and die from some unknown heart condition or dehydration. I don't recall where I got the 300 number from, but it was in a story where a local high school football player dropped dead on the practice field from more than a decade ago.
The lists I can find (wikipedia unfortunately) suggests there are a decent number of athletes that die on the field (or within short order of injuries received on field,) and the Youth Sports Safety Alliance suggests are are maybe (average) 50 deaths a year of <18yo players. Statistics go back to the turn of last century for some things.
I can't find any evidence that so many have died all at once. That's the interesting part about this data point.
That was a little nigger kid he took a really big hit to the head not long before he died.
I coached HS football for years. We're talking a handful of kids per year with most of it from heat exhaustion. Being dehydrated and going into heat stroke does give you a heart attack. It does happen though, one kid from the jv level after our game almost died. He fell on the football on his chest with some fat linemen on top and he was out after that. Not sure if that did it or not. I coached a kid with tachycardia and needed surgery. Nothing like this though, the numbers will go up too.
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