Jiri Fischer collapsing on the bench

Last night brought back a lot of bad memories of sports tragedy in Detroit. Immediately after my mother called to tell me there was a Red Wing on TV getting CPR, I switched over to Fox Sports Detroit. There was a somber Mickey Redmond describing the scene. At that point in the night there was speculation that he took a puck to the neck. Then Mickey "telestrated" a replay that appeared to show a Wings player getting hit w/ an errant stick. In the end they are calling it a seizure and heart failure. Jiri was shocked w/ a defibulator and was able to breath on his own. Of course, as of today 11/22/05 there is no word if he will be able to play again, but that does not matter. Here is a 25 year old man in the prime of his hockey career cut down.

It reminded me of two incidents that I witnessed personally at the Pontiac Silverdome. When Mike Utley went down we had no idea that his neck was broken as he was carted off. He gave the famous "thumbs up" signal and we all figured it wasn't something as serious as it ended up. This hulk of a man hasn't walked since. The other incident happened the day that Barry Sanders broke his 2000 yard mark for the season. The Lions were playing the NY Jets that day. Not only was there anticipation for Barry breaking 2000 yards, but the Lions were in the playoff hunt. It was a close fought game and as the game wore on, the rowdier the dome got. If memory serves me correctly, the Lions were in need of a big defensive stand, and the dome was ROCKING. Literally. The stands were shaking. You could feel them beneath your feet. The only other time I felt that was the year the Lions beat the Cowboys in the playoffs. The Jets snapped the ball then within seconds the medical crew were on the field attending to Reggie Brown. We could see them giving him CPR. The entire building grew silent, players took a knee in a circle on the field, both Jets and Lions in prayer. Then two Lions players, the one I remember was Lomas Brown, in desperation to do something....anything........ went running to the tunnel and got a stretcher. They dashed across the field clumsily as fast as they could. Very eerie site. At one point the crowd started a Reggie Reggie Reggie chant. That didn't last long as the ambulance came out to the field. Later on, Barry broke the 2000 yard mark, and it was loud, but not anything like it was prior to the accident. The Lions won that day, Barry broke the mark, and within a week or two Reggie was able to walk again. He would never see the football field again, but had his life.