Notre Dame Football: Declan Sullivan Report Sans Logic and Common Sense

“You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” – Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

“This report is an important step in preventing future accidents, but its findings do not change the fact that Declan is not with us.”  – The Declan Sullivan Family, after the IOSHA report was released in mid-March, which found Notre Dame responsible for the accident that resulted in the death of their son.

Sadly, Notre Dame’s report on their internal investigation of the Declan Sullivan tragedy issued on late Monday morning is very disappointing. Instead of closure, we got dubious conclusions.

Despite the fact that the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a wind warning and wind advisory for that entire fateful day; despite IOSHA’s report findings that ND “knowingly” put its videographers in harm’s way; and despite Declan Sullivan’s tweets about terrifying wind conditions prior to his death, the University, in its report, blamed its inability to connect the dots about hazardous wind conditions, rather than individual failures by its employees.

"After a thorough and painstaking study in which numerous university personnel were interviewed and external experts consulted, we have reached the conclusion that no one acted in disregard for safety," said Fr. John I. Jenkins, University President.

Really?

It is doubtful that Alison and Barry Sullivan, Declan’s parents, will be satisfied with the University’s so-called investigative findings. Moreover, the Sullivans may ultimately decide that the only way to get to the truth about who, specifically, was responsible for their son’s unnecessary death is to resort to litigation. Up until now, the Sullivans have refrained from filing a lawsuit against the University, presumably because they wanted to see if Notre Dame was going to come clean.

Some of the things that don’t add up include:

In his interview with IOSHA, an amazingly precise Coach Brian Kelly testified, “It was a beautiful day. It was 68 degrees and I remember looking up at 11:54 a.m. and the wind was 22 mph.” Despite such precise recollection about the weather, the University concluded that no one knew that an all-day wind advisory had been issued that morning.

Immediately following the incident, fast-dancing Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick described the weather conditions before the tragedy as “unremarkable,” despite the fact that Sullivan’s own Twitter feed indicated that he was terrified as gusts swirled about him during practice, and the fact that video from Sullivan’s camera—viewed by IOSHA—showed coaches’ jackets and pants whipping in the wind and showed the goal posts rocking.

The NWS had warned of sustained winds between 25 to 35 mph around the time of the practice. The lift’s manufacturer warns against the equipment being used in winds stronger than 28 mph.

Sullivan raised his aerial lift to about 40 feet, before it was toppled at around 4:50 p.m.

Wind speed records at 3:54 p.m. in South Bend show a sustained wind speed of 33.4 mph and a gust speed of 50.6 mph. The conditions posted at that hour were the highest wind speeds among the hourly reports for the day. According to the weather records, wind gusts exceeded the manufacturer’s specified safe limit starting at 9:54 a.m., with a gust speed measurement of 31.1 mph. Subsequent hourly gust reports exceeded the 28 mph limit from 11:54 a.m. until past the time of the fatal incident.

Yet, we are asked to believe by the University's report that no supervisor at the outdoor practice realized that it was extremely windy and, therefore, dangerous for students to be working on extremely high, portable platforms that afternoon.

IOSHA has a different conclusion, however: “The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrated that the university made a decision to utilize its scissor lifts in known adverse weather conditions,” said Lori Torres, Indiana Department of Labor Commissioner.

Not surprising, head coach Brian Kelly is hardly mentioned in the University’s report issued today, other than to say he made the decision to practice outdoors that day. The report focuses more on apparent scapegoats Chad Klunder, director of football operations, video director, Tim Collins, and former head athletic trainer, Jim Russ. Notre Dame’s report says they were aware of the windy conditions and had checked “weather.com” (The Weather Channel’s Web site) for updates, but that they had not seen any wind-gust advisories.

The truth is, no one at football practice needed a Web site to tell them that the wind was howling and whipping across the field.

If Notre Dame's rationalizations are difficult to swallow, it’s equally difficult to believe that a sophisticated institution of higher learning does not simply employ telecommunications to get its vital data first-hand.

My dad worked for the NWS in South Bend for almost 40 years, before anyone ever heard of Brian Kelly or Jack Swarbrick, and before online weather sites existed. During football season, the Notre Dame football office would simply call his office on the telephone for daily weather updates, inquiring about precipitation, temperatures and, of course, wind conditions. As a thank you, my dad and his colleagues received free field passes for football games, which I often got to enjoy, too, because Dad, who was raised in New York City, was a big baseball and Yankees fan, and not so much a college football fan.

A simple phone call to the National Weather Service office in South Bend on Wednesday, October 27^th, the day of the preventable tragedy, could have gone something like this:

ND Football Office: “Hey, Charlie, this is Brian over at Notre Dame.”

National Weather Service: “Hi, Coach. How’s it going? You’re calling about today’s weather, I presume..?”

ND: “Right. What’cha got for me?”

NWS: “As you probably already know just from being outside, it’s gonna be warm and sunny, but very windy all day today. In fact, we’ve issued a wind advisory for the entire day, through late tonight.”

ND: “Hmmm. Well, we put kids up on those high towers to film our practices. What’s your opinion on that idea?”

NWS: “My advice is, don’t do it. With constant wind speeds over 30 mph, and gusts over 50 mph, I personally wouldn’t climb a step ladder outdoors today.”

ND: “Okay, Charlie, thanks. That’s all I needed to know.”

Indeed.

The University, to their credit, plans on using anemometers in the future to monitor wind speeds. However, in reality, the only weather instrument they actually need is a sensible level of common sense and good judgment by its adult supervisors.

The real question that should be asked of Kelly, Swarbrick, Collins and any other decision makers associated with the football program is, would they have allowed their own children to stand on a potentially dangerous portable tower 30 or 40 feet in the air on that extremely windy day? Could they have looked the interviewer in the eye and honestly have said, “Yes”?

And I wonder if Brian Kelly can look Declan's mother in the eye and say, "As the guy in charge, I did my best to protect your son."

I doubt it, but we probably will never know.

Notre Dame had an opportunity today to put the Sullivan tragedy to rest. But, unfortunately, too many disturbing questions still remain. Especially the one about why anyone should believe this report.

Hopefully the Declan Sullivan statue that Notre Dame reportedly is planning to erect has a place of honor directly outside of the Guglielmino Athletics Complex on the walkway leading to the The LaBar Practice Fields. That way, the players, coaches and staff can be reminded, every day, of the supreme sacrifice Declan made for the program.

If you would like to help memorialize Declan Sullivan’s life, go to the Sullivan Family’s Web site: http://www.declandrummsullivan.org/