Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Forgotten


With the sports weekend filled with shocking news and breaking stories perhaps the most important of all of them was merely mentioned throughout the sports world. Gaines Adams death seemed to be a lost topic this weekend. With the NFL playoffs going on, the Mark McGwire saga continuing, the NFL coaching carousel rotating, and other stories the Gaines Adams story got lost. Not even cracking the "Top Stories" on ESPN.com.

Adams who just finished his third season in the NFL was a tremendous defensive linemen prospect coming out of Clemson. Adams was taken with the fourth overall pick in the draft by the Tampa Bay Bucs, but did not live up to the towering expectations. Adams was then traded to the Chicago Bears before the start of the 2009 NFL season. Adams totaled 13.5 sacks during his time in the NFL.

Was the story of Adams' death lost because of the fact that he was not a star player? Or was it the fact that with the playoffs going on it was just too hard to squeeze his story in? Or was it that Adams died of natural causes? Those are the reasons why I believe his death was a side story throughout the weekend. None of those reasons are good enough to overshadow the premature death of an athlete and man. He was only 26.

Gaines Adams deserved better from the sports world. The playoffs, McGwire, Pete Carroll, all could have gone to the back of our minds for just a bit while we remembered the life of Gaines Adams. It is so hard to see a man's life cut so incredibly short. The NFL has had a very tough year prematurely losing four active players; Gaines Adams, Chris Henry, Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper. While it is easy to get caught up in the flash of the playoffs, we can not overlook this story.

R.I.P Gaines Adams
June 8, 1983-January 17, 2010





-Matt Houston

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