Frightening Grant Wahl news

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Checked the World Cup thread, didn't see anything, and if this ends up being anywhere close to what happened, it's gonna warrant a separate thread anyway. Grant Wahl's brother says Grant, who was Tweeting five hours ago, has died in Qatar during a tournament in which he took on the very powerful and murderous establishment.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Jesus. That’s terrible.

 

[UPChip]

Holy ****.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Thread started earlier over on the J board, sorry about that, just checked the World Cup thread and posted after that.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Holy ****. Grant was a good, good dude. RIP.

 

[UPChip]

NPR confirms.

 

[maumann]

Wow. No words. Prayers of healing to his family and colleagues.

 

[qtlaw]

Damn been reading him for a long time.

 

[HanSenSE]

Stunned doesn't even begin to describe my emotions right now.1

 

[Driftwood]

Absolutely no words.
I've read his works for 20 years.
You can't tell me he just randomly died, either.

 

[Driftwood]

Dude wasn't even 50, and 5 hours ago he was live tweeting the Netherlands match.
No damn way he just up and died.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

Just awful and yes, possibly terrifying. Can't 100 percent jump to the conclusion. But the mind goes to one place.

RIP.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

It's awful no matter how he died, but apparently super healthy 17 year old athletes die from undiagnosed issues often enough that it isn't shocking, so perhaps we should wait for more information.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Just awful and yes, possibly terrifying. Can't 100 percent jump to the conclusion. But the mind goes to one place.

RIP.

Two places, maybe: murder or a heart attack. Both tragic.

 

[Driftwood]

Yeah, no need to jump to conclusions. This was yesterday.

 

[Driftwood]

Apparently Wednesday was his birthday.

 

[PaperDoll]

I've shared many press boxes with Grant Wahl over the years. I can only hope the story of his death is as well reported as what he wrote in life.

From his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, who is a rock star in her own right:

 

[Cosmo]

Killed? killed?!! What in the actual ****?

 

[UPChip]

@Inky_Wretch makes a good point that he did not tweet during extra time or the shootout of the NED-ARG game. To bring it over here for good (my post was in the wrong thread), the "while" in the NPR tweet does a lot of work, though if he were literally in the press box, it stands to reason that it would at least be less likely that he was out and out murdered. But we should probably leave that to the cops, or maybe the US State Department. ****.

 

[UPChip]

From the AP first lede, which also reports that he was "stricken while in the media tribune":


He wrote Monday that he had visited a hospital while in Qatar.

“My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you,” Wahl wrote. “What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort. I didn’t have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I’m already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.”