HS Football Player Tom Cutinella Dies at Age 16

Tom Cutinella, a 16-year-old high school football player in New York, died Wednesday after collapsing during a game following a collision with an opponent.     

According to a report from ESPN.com, Cutinella suffered a head injury in the third quarter of his team's game. He died in a hospital's intensive-care unit following surgery:

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Authorities say Tom Cutinella, a player for Shoreham-Wading River High School, died Wednesday night at a hospital after suffering a head injury during a game with John Glenn High School in Elwood earlier that day.

A school district spokeswoman told Newsday that Cutinella had been in the intensive-care unit after undergoing surgery.

Suffolk County police said the collision happened about 6 p.m. ET. Cutinella, a guard/linebacker, was injured during the third quarter of the varsity game.

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Darran Simon of Newsday reported that Cutinella's injury occurred "while blocking for a teammate during a running play." Shoreham-Wading River High School superintendent Steven Cohen is quoted in the piece, calling the injury "typical contact" and "a freak effect."

Cohen also said that the school is "going to be reviewing all of the equipment as well as everything else that happened in this event."

Cutinella is the third high school football player to die in the last few days. 

Per Josh Bean of AL.com, Demario Harris Jr. of Charles Henderson High School died on Sept. 28 when he "apparently suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on Friday night, moments after making a tackle in the first half of a game against Davidson."

According to a report from Solomon Crenshaw Jr. of AL.com on Sept. 30, the official cause of death may not be released for a few days. Harris' father, Demario Harris Sr., also disputes Charles Henderson coach Brad McCoy's claims "that a neurologist told him that Harris suffered an ruptured brain aneurysm, meaning that it’s unlikely that his condition was related to football."

Harris Sr. wrote in a Facebook post that his son did not suffer an aneurysm during the game:

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My family and me are dealing with a rough situation and we really appreciate everyone well wishes and prayers. And contrary to various media reports my son had a brain hemorrhage, not an aneurysm, that was caused by a hit he took during Fridays game. He may have had a pre existing condition but there is no way to tell now.

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Another high school player, Isaiah Langston of Rolesville High School in North Carolina, died after collapsing on the field before a game on Sept. 26, though it's not clear this was related to football, according to Andrea Blanford of ABC 11.

"Over the weekend," Blanford wrote, "Isaiah Langston had been listed in critical condition at WakeMed Hospital...Not knowing the official cause of death, Aijalon said Isaiah's collapse had something to do with a blood clot in his brain."

These deaths also come out around the same time that Steve Delsohn of ESPN's Outside The Lines reported that former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher "showed signs of pervasive brain damage like that found in other deceased NFL players."

Football has seen a steep decline in the number of young people playing the game. According to a report last November from Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada of ESPN.com, Pop Warner youth football leagues saw a participation drop of 9.5 percent from 2010 to 2012:

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According to data provided to 'Outside the Lines,' Pop Warner lost 23,612 players, thought to be the largest two-year decline since the organization began keeping statistics decades ago. Consistent annual growth led to a record 248,899 players participating in Pop Warner in 2010; that figure fell to 225,287 by the 2012 season.

Pop Warner officials said they believe several factors played a role in the decline, including the trend of youngsters focusing on one sport. But the organization's chief medical officer, Dr. Julian Bailes, cited concerns about head injuries as 'the No. 1 cause.'

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One of the hottest topics in sports for the last few years has been the nature of concussions and head injuries in football and sports in general. This rash of deaths at the high school level will lead to more discussions about the violent nature of the sport.