November 25, 2002
| --Extra Points with Steve Miller appears throughout the Texas A&M athletics season and is generally posted every other week.
Too often we learn of athletes passing away long before their time. Monday, we learned of the passing of Texas A&M freshman football player Brandon Fails, definitely long before his time. After waking up and getting ready for breakfast, Fails mentioned to his roommate Patrick Fleming that he didn't feel well. Moments later he collapsed in his Cain Hall dorm room and was rushed to St. Joseph Medical Center in Bryan. A medical team tried to revive the 18-year old Fails for nearly an hour, but was unsuccessful. News spread through the football team, other Aggie athletes and the A&M family throughout the day. Most of Fails' teammates and friends were forced to learn the news as they arrived at Cain Hall in between classes.
Coaches and other athletic department personnel and university staff delivered the terrible news to Fails' unsuspecting teammates and friends. The look of shock on the faces of the athletes quickly turned to grief and sorrow. The mood at Cain Hall quickly turned somber and quiet-an uncomfortable quiet for a place that is usually filled with emotion and warm greetings among A&M's close-knit athletes. As coach R.C. Slocum and defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt addressed a news conference in the Kyle Field Press Box, the sorrow they shared was clear and unmistakable. Unfortunately for Slocum, it's a sorrow, a grief and a compassion that he has dealt with before. During his 14 seasons as the head football coach in Aggieland, Slocum has been forced to tell two sets of parents that their child has passed, and has helped in the consoling of another player's family following his death. The news that Slocum delivered to the parents of placekicker James Glenn in 1991, and the consoling that he offered to the parents of defensive linean Terry Nichols two years ago were not any easy tasks. Monday, he greeted Fails' family at the hospital and told them the news that no one wants to hear. Not many of us know the difficulty of delivering the message that Slocum had to, but it pales in comparison to the tragedy that the Fails family is going through. "He was such a positive, happy person to be around," Slocum said of Fails to the media. "He had a big huge smile and just a bubbly personality. He was the kind of guy you want to hug when you see him." In times of tragedy, people often say that the event puts things in perspective. On this week of Thanksgiving, things are certainly put into perspective. A football game with your rival takes a back seat to the sorrow that emulates from the A&M family. As was evident in 1999 following the Bonfire tragedy, the Aggie family has the ability to rally together and overcome tragedy. This Friday morning in Austin, perhaps the Aggie family will shine. But pause for a moment or two this week as your family gathers for Thanksgiving, or as you make preparations for the football game, or even as you go about you daily activities. Think about what must be going through the Fails' family as they gather this week. What they thought would be a Thanksgiving week capped by a football game will be very different. Stories will be written throughout the week, all pondering the ability of the Aggies to overcome tragedy and play football. A team shaken today by the news of Fails' passing, must reconvene Tuesday and put on the shoulder pads and strap on the helmets and somehow attempt to continue to prepare to play a football game on Friday. The game will take on different meanings for all involved. It will be a rally among the team to not only play the game, but to win it for Brandon. It was just Sunday that Fails was at practice. It was just Sunday that Fails went to dinner with the fellas. It was just Sunday that will be the final memory that many will have of him. How will the tam handle all of this? No one really knows. Monday, as he has done before, Slocum offered some advice. "We'll try to help them through it by hugging them, by talking to them, but letting them talk," Slocum said. "We'll just try to express ourselves to each other in a family context." Knowing Aggieland, that expression will be in a powerful family context. It will be in the closest family of them all, Aggies. |
