Son of Erik Kramer found dead

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/California-QB-a-son-of-former-NFL-star-found-d?urn=highschool-wp7940

Griffen Kramer 18-year-old prep qb (backup) found dead Sunday of alcohol poisoning.
He was the son of former Lions QB Erik Kramer.

 

From the story:
was tragically found dead on Sunday, sending a high school community into mourning while it wonders what may have pushed him to his death....

I am going to take a wild stab at this, and guess "too much booze".

 

From the story:
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department also confirmed that it has no reason to believe that there was any criminal activity involved in the teen's passing.

So serving booze to 18 year olds is legal in California now?

 

From the story:
It may always be unknown just how far the younger Kramer would have gone in football...

A senior sitting on the bench as a backup on the Thousand Oaks high school team? I have a pretty good idea how far this was going.

 

Not to be insensitive, because the story is sad, but from a journalistic standpoint, this kind of reporting by news side is so par for the course. Any time a current or former athlete ever died or got into trouble, it was like clockwork, some variation of the following:

"So was he a pretty good player, big part of the team?"

"He was OK. Backup running back. Got a few carries in blowouts."

"Do you think he might have been able to play in college?"

"Maybe a small school. They'll take anyone."

"But what about the Big Ten? Do you think he could have played in the Big Ten? Or maybe Notre Dame?"

"No way."

"I don't mean for sure, though. I mean, there was at least a chance, right?"

"No chance."

"But everyone has a chance. You never know what might happen in life!"

"Well, if you put it that way ..."

Next day headline:

H: H.S. football star dead in accident
S: Big Ten may have been in standout's future

The first cousin of this is when a gang banger gets shot and killed, and we learn from the news account that he had gotten his life together and was working toward a degree.

"Dirty Sanchez, his relatives said, was taking his role as a father seriously. He was working toward a degree, as they believed he recently looked into taking an online course at the University of Phoenix."

 

I guess technically a CFL team might draft him.

 

It's a ridiculous cliche, on par with 'time will tell.' Belongs in a eulogy, not a news story.

That said, what a tragedy, and not because the dad was an NFL qb.

 

You know how it is these days. Nothing is an accident. You always have to find someone or something to blame.

I had a very close friend who OD'd on prescription drugs about two years ago. A lot of people — including his family — kept asking "how could this happen?"

Me, I knew the answer was "he liked to get high and he swallowed too much at one time."

 

This made me laugh, which instantly made me feel guilty.

 

You are conflating two things that aren't equivalent. The why and the how are important beyond a surface level. God forbid anything ever happen to my own children like that, I, too, would be questioning how it came to that. It's a simple question with a very complex answer. To dismiss so breezily is to dismiss, well, human psychology.

 

In every death, there's a lawsuit to be filed ...