Notre Dame Student Manager Dies in Tower Collapse

Some message board reports (yes, take it with a grain of salt) claim that the kid wanted to come down and Kelly ordered him back up.

If any solid evidence to THAT effect comes out, Kelly is fired instantly and ND's football program is shut down for the year.

Hopefully somebody higher on the food chain than the local sheriff is being called in to run the investigation.

 

If true, that's beyond horrible. The lawsuit would be epic and the parents would deserve every cent and more.

 

Well, sounds like Tressel was one coach in charge of deciding if the guys go up. From his press conference on Tuesday:

Now, who knows, maybe Ohio State's guys did end up going there.

 

South Bend Tribune story references the Facebook and Twitter posts.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20101027/News01/101029407/0/SPORTS

 

"In fact, HHS Hire, a company that deals in lifts, specifically states that the lift should never be used in wind speeds greater than 25 mph."

Yet gusts were hitting the 50s yesterday.

And WTF is Notre Dame doing using a scissor lift for filming? Even the high schools around here have permanent structures built and anchored to the ground.

 

If that is true, Kelly should be fired and he should face criminal charges (reckless endangerment?). I don't know Kelly, but I've known a few football coaches who would do something like that. And I've known kids like this one who would be intimdated enough to go back up.

 

Would Brian Kelly have put an injured player up on a tower in wind like that? Would he have put Dayne Crist up there?

Last year Mike Leach was fired for putting a concussed player in a dark room. Are players' lives more valuable than regular students?

That said, Kelly has a family and a life to live, as well. He'll have to live with this no matter what happens, and this would be an awful, awful way to see a career end, because he obviously meant no harm. Just a football coach being a football coach.

On the other hand, decisions have consequences. I'm really, really curious about whether it is standard operating procedure for football programs, both in college and h.s., to flaunt guidelines about the wind on these towers.

 

Maybe OSHA will shut the program down for unsafe working conditions....

What an asshole.

 

Did he mean for the kid to get killed? Of course not.

But if the kid really did ask to come down and Kelly sent him up there, that is pretty damn callous and reckless.

 

Did they really finish practice? I've seen that they were "on the practice field for 25 more minutes," but I don't think that necessarily means they were actively practicing. More than likely they would have been talking, praying, etc., etc.

 

I've been around practices where scissor lifts are being used and noticed them swaying in the wind ... wind that was certainly not gusting 40-50 mph. Thought at the time was, "Damn, wonder what that's like to be on that platform and feeling it swaying?"

If the family wants to sue, they'll probably have an easy time winning the case.

If properly investigated, someone will lose his job.

If Kelly ordered the kid back up in the tower, there are probably witnesses who heard the conversation. Will they honestly answer investigators/lawyers questions or will they lie to save the football coach's job?

 

I think that once you put people in an official setting where they are being deposed and surrounded by lawyers, they talk. It's similar to the way everybody jokes about how they know how to get out of jury duty, but sit them in that courtroom, in front of the guy with the black robes and the lawyers in their dark suits, and 99.9 percent of people fall right into line.