Middle School Football Player Dies From Head Injury During Practice

West Virginian 13-year-old Cohen Craddock died in hospital on Aug. 24 after sustaining a head injury he received during football practice.
“His brain was dying, it just basically caused his body to be unable to regulate itself and caused him to perish,” the father said.
While Cohen’s family is waiting for the autopsy report, his father aims to encourage more youth football players to wear soft-shell covers over their helmets to reduce potential impact.
“You’re not modifying the helmets. It’s just something that attaches directly on. So why not just have that extra layer of protection?” Craddock said.
Cohen played in eighth-grade football for the Madison Middle School Jaguars. Craddock stated that the outcome could have been different had Cohen worn the extra layer of protective gear.
“I believe if my son would have been wearing something like this, this would have made a totally different outcome,” he said. “What image would you rather have—somebody seeing you laying in a casket, or you wearing something to protect your body?”
The report details three deaths directly related to football participation, 10 incidents were indirectly related, two were not football or exertion-related, and the cause of one death was unknown at the time of the report’s release.