It's just football....

So I listened to howard like I do every morning and then when it's over I switch to local sports radio to catch up on buckeye news etc etc etc.... Now I had read a blurp in the paper about a kids death at a Notre Dame practice yesterday from a wind gust knocking over a scissor stand. My initial thought was how sad and what a gust of wind! Now I am very aware of the up coming weather, but rarely do I remember yesterday's weather unless it directly affects me, so I had no knowledge of what the weather was like yesterday in South bend. Now for those of you that don't know all major colleges use stands (permanent or portable) to high angle film practice for self evaluation. On the local sports radio show at 1 the host is giving detail after detail on the events of yesterday. First and most important this was no rogue storm or gust, the winds all day were 40 to 60 mph! Notre Dame uses (unlike the permanent ones at osu that tressel wouldn't use yesterday because of the wind) portable ones. These go higher than the goal posts, probably 150 ft in air or so? and reportedly are have safety warnings about using if winds are over 25 mph. Second, the 20 year old jr (working probably for free/experience/love of his school) was terrified and new what they were doing was stupid. He posted to his facebook before practice about not going to have fun at work today because of wind and then again (i'm guessing from platform on his cell phone) about 45 min before his death... this is really scary, 60mph wind gusts, guess i've had a good life.... Wow! Sadly no one (coaches, training staff, facility managers) thought it was dangerous enough they could go without filming practice for the big Tulsa game this Saturday or go inside to (like they did tuesday) practice. Third, they continued to practice after the scissor lift fell and the kid died, now surely the kid was rushed to the hospital and they didn't know, but come on they had to have seen it and thought it was serious/life threatining. They have no plans to postpone the game (which would probably be appropriate) and I realize that's not realisitic, but the moment of silence will feel empty from the people that should have been responsible and prevented the tragedy. If this was OSU and coach tress, I wouldn't call for his firing (because of all the good he does) but i'd have no problem if he was fired. It is why big time coaches get paid so much and why so many of them look old beyond their years because of the stress of the job and the total responsibility for the football program. There's just no excuse for the situation and someone should pay, sadly only that kid and his family will pay, for a PRACTICE. Oh, and ND is denying the local sheriff's office from investigating saying it was on campus and their private security had jurisdiction over the "accident", real classy! Someone in South Bend (like the president or board of directors or whomever is head of the school) should step in and stop this snowball of bad decision on top of bad decision. Sad, for a frickin football practice...