Notre Dame Football Practice Tragedy Leaves Many Questions Unanswered

Just a few days after the Notre Dame football team suffered what appeared to be a tragic setback to the 2010 season in a 35-17 loss to Navy, it felt the sting of true tragedy for a second time in less than a year.

During Wednesday afternoon practice, 20-year old junior student Declan Sullivan was recording footage for the team on a hydraulic "scissor lift" platform when the gusting winds sent the tower toppling backwards into the road. Sullivan was severely injured in the crash and died shortly thereafter at South Bend's Memorial Hospital.

This is the second death of a student related to the Irish football program after committed recruit Matt James died after a fall from a balcony in the spring.

Sullivan's case is especially distressing, because it is not simply some freak accident. Many unanswered questions surround the accident, most of which concern why Sullivan was still atop the platform despite wind gusts that the South Bend Tribune reports were over 50 mph.

More chilling is the report from chicagobreakingnews.com regarding Facebook messages Sullivan reportedly posted before the crash, saying the winds atop the tower, about the same height as football goalposts, were "terrifying."

According to the South Bend Tribune, the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is on Notre Dame's campus to investigate the incident as a workplace fatality. That investigation will likely yield some answers, though they will provide little consolation to Sullivan's family and friends aside from a target for their grief.

Like any CEO, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, who did not speak at Thursday's press conference, is the easiest target at whom to point a finger though his ultimate culpability is still to be determined. It's unlikely that he was the one who insisted that Sullivan stay atop the tower, but the determination of practice locations and ultimate oversight of the activities therein are very much part of Kelly's responsibility.

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick told UND.com that an investigation was underway saying, "People are being interviewed and asked those questions." Swarbrick followed up, "Every program makes its own decisions, every sports program, with regard to practices."

A football game is an unpleasant afterthought in a situation like this, but the show will go on. It will be difficult to determine how, if at all, this tragedy will impact Notre Dame's performance given the team's inconsistent performance through eight games. Legal action against the university or even Kelly is not out of the realm of possibility, which would almost certainly be a distraction for the team.

The players too will eventually face questions from the media about Sullivan. It is unclear how many of them had any personal connection to Sullivan, although to be on the scene of a fatal incident can be a scarring thing by itself.

Had the accident resulted in only a broken bone, calls of "win one for the gipper" for this Saturday's game against Tulsa would be an easy rallying cry. But nothing about a loss of this magnitude is easy—a campus and a family can only grieve.