READ CHAPTER ONE OF MY NEW BOOK!
READ CHAPTER ONE OF MY NEW BOOK!
My new book SPORTZZ FRUM HOME is now available. I'm so excited about it that I wanted to share some of it with you.
Hey there,
Hope your Tuesday is going well.
My book SPORTZZ FRUM HOME is NOW AVAILABLE on my Website at the link directly below and I just wanted to share chapter one with you.
https://www.brianvsutah.com/s/sportzz
SEPTEMBER 30, 2021
This week was tough. Having been stunned by the news that Utah Utes cornerback Aaron Lowe was shot and killed at a party in the Sugar House neighborhood Saturday night, this tragedy fell eight months after his best friend and Utah teammate, Ty Jordan, died from an accidental gunshot.
It goes without question that the late, great Jordan left a memorable mark on everyone he knew. So did the running back’s teammate Lowe, the very person who was the first recipient of the memorial scholarship in Jordan’s name and wore Jordan’s jersey number 22 this season to commemorate his fallen friend.
Jordan was found by paramedics having been shot once in the abdomen at a friend’s apartment in Denton, Texas, and was rushed to the hospital where he passed away due to his wounds. He was 19.
Conversely, Aaron Lowe was 21 when he passed away months later on Sept. 25, 2021, several hours after he stood on the sidelines as a sophomore cornerback, having watched his Utah Utes defeat Washington State 27-13 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
It turned out Lowe, of Mesquite, Texas, was the victim of an assailant’s bullet later that same night while he was talking to a girl in a driveway of a home in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City. A neighbor said it occurred just a few hundred feet from her house.
Other Utes fans who were from the Metroplex sent their condolences on Lowe’s Instagram page. “So sad man, we lost Ty Jordan and now we’ve lost Aaron Lowe,” added @tyreek2fast, who knew both of the slain players from back when they were playing Pop Warner football. “They were best friends since high school and came to the U [together]. May they Rest In Peace.”
There have been too many Ty's and Lowe's. Between the years 2003-13 there were a total of 42 homicide deaths of NCAA athletes, an average of four per year. That is two annually if we are only counting college football players. But in November and December 2020 alone, four college football student-athletes died by gun, including but not limited to Jordan.
Whether they were 18-year-olds Malik Brown and Dexter Rentz of Florida, or 20-year-olds Trevor Van Dyke or Khambrail Winters, the thread that courses through every single death by gun to each of these college football players in 2020 might surprise you.
What makes these deaths by gun ironic, in a tragic sort of way, is that all—aside from Lowe’s—occurred while the athletes were off-campus on a mandatory holiday break. [Lowe’s occurred at a house party near the University campus.]
Naysayers have been quick to point out that had Lowe not been out that late his shooting death would’ve never taken place. However, what may surprise you is that the University of Utah’s reach ends the moment the player is off-campus. So does the NCAA’s.
When does the NCAA exercise its institutional oversight over the school at which the student-athlete is signed, you might ask? According to a 2019 report from the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and The Law at American University, the responsibility falls on the NCAA and is something the institution acknowledges—but again, only when its athletes are on campus, participating in sports or academics.
“During a Senate hearing, [NCAA] President [Mark] Emmert stated that the NCAA owed its student-athletes a moral obligation to protect their safety and well-being,” stated the report, in part. “Additionally, this duty to protect players is memorialized in Article 2 of the NCAA’s Constitution.”
In the mental health space, the University of Utah athletics department has appointed a Student-Athlete Wellness Team, “a multidisciplinary team of professionals trained to enhance the performance of student-athletes who are struggling psychologically, emotionally, or physically.”
This team will reportedly be heavily involved with Utah’s student-athletes. In its policies it states that it includes the following services: “…will consider policy and process issues involving the drug testing program, psychological issues, and health and safety issues that are of national significance (e.g., concussions).”
Like what you’re reading? Check out SPORTZZ FRUM HOME in its entirety—absolutely FREE on Kindle Unlimited: