16-Year-Old Football Player Dies in Season Opener

Quarterback Caden Tellier suffered a brain injury in Alabama
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 26, 2024 12:20 PM CDT
High School Quarterback Dies in Season Opener
Caden Tellier was 16.   (GoFundMe)

A 16-year-old high school quarterback died after suffering what has been described as a traumatic brain injury during his team's season opener Friday night in Alabama. Coverage:

  • The teen: Caden Tellier played for John T. Morgan Academy in Selma, and he was airlifted to a local hospital after being injured in the third quarter of the home game, reports Al.com. He died the following day, per the Selma Times-Journal.
  • What happened: It remains under investigation. "While we may not know the full story for some time, initial reports are that Caden likely suffered a ruptured blood vessel in his brain following a routine play in which he was tackled and made contact with the ground," said Alabama Independent School Association Executive Director Michael McLendon in a statement to CNN. He said the crowd "likely didn't witness anything unusual" on the play.

  • Family: "Our boy, Caden Tellier has met Jesus face to face," said the family in a statement. "We appreciate all of your prayers, and we covet them for the hard days ahead," it reads, per People. A GoFundMe account set up for the family has raised more than $80,000, per WSFA. The school is a tight-knit one, with just 339 student in grades K through 12, notes ABC News.
  • Context: The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research counts seven deaths among high school football players in 2023, two of which were caused by traumatic brain injuries, per CNN. On the day Caden died, the Guardian had run an op-ed by two experts in youth sports headlined, "Is high school football morally tenable?" The "brutal fact (is) that every time we watch football, we are actually witnessing players suffer life-altering head trauma—harm that is essentially invisible to us for it occurs inside the helmet and skull," wrote Nathan Kalman-Lamb of the University of New Brunswick and Derek Silva of King's University College.
(More high school football stories.)

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