No sport is more vulnerable to climate change than football, jon_wertheim reports. An ‘American Journal of Preventive Medicine’ study found that football players are 11 times more likely to get some kind of heat-related illness than other athletes
times more likely to get some kind of heat-related illness compared to other athletes. According to another study, from 2017 to ’21, the number of football players dying from exertional heatstroke, or EHS, has nearly doubled from the previous five-year period.
In terms of climate change, August is the cruelest month, featuring the highest concentration of heat illness and heat-related deaths in the general population. And this peril is reflected in football. Eight of the 14 player deaths occurred in August. According to a study that tracked high school and college football fatalities from 1998 to 2018, in more than one-third of the cases, the player was subjected to exercise as punishment.
The culture of football doesn’t help, either. In a sector that prides itself on macho toughness—which includes perceptions of indifference to climate; note the bare arms in freezing weather—and has long considered “rub some dirt on it” to be sound medical advice, it’s easy to see why there might be a reluctance for young players in particular to complain about the conditions.
After her husband’s death, Kelci Stringer filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Vikings. It was dismissed. She also sued the NFL, claiming the league had not done enough to ensure that equipment used by players protected them from injuries or deaths caused by heat-related illnesses.
After legal proceedings, Casa was named executive director of the KSI, housed on UConn’s campus. As the environment and climate change have played an increasingly outsized role in sports, the institute has played an increasingly prominent role as well. KSI has consulted with sporting events and organizations, ranging from cycling race organizers to the International Olympic Committee–for whom it set up heatstroke care for every venue at 2021's Games in Tokyo.
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