In the wake of the death of a Franklin High School football player in Reistertown, MD., Maryland Representative Kweisi Mfume is reigniting the fire for a federal bill to protect student-athletes.
Mfume’s bill, the Jordan McNair Student-Athlete Heat Fatality Prevention Act, was first brought to Congress in June 2023. At that time, it did not pass, but Mfume is hoping that the string of recent deaths of high school football players will have caught some lawmakers’ attention.
According to The Baltimore Sun, the bill would require colleges and high schools to, “create emergency heat plans, detailing their planned use of automatic external defibrillators and cold-water immersion equipment.”
If schools fail to meet the standards set in the bill, they face a loss or decrease of federal funding.
Related: HS Football Player Collapses, Dies During First Practice of the Season
Mfume feels an even greater call to pass the bill because of his own experience playing youth sports. He said, “These early childhood memories playing sports should be some of our young people’s fondest moments, and yet, in tragic situations like these student-athletes experience nothing but trauma as they mourn the loss of their teammate solely because they practiced on the field that day.”
The bill is named after Jordan McNair, a University of Maryland football player who died in 2018 after suffering from heatstroke during practice. In the years since McNair’s death, Maryland has passed several state laws including the Jordan McNair Safe and Fair Play Act and the Elijah Gorhman Act. Gorhman was a wide receiver at Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School who died after being tackled and injured during a football game. With no athletic trainer available, it took more than 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and administer care.
“These types of bills, the athlete fatality act, would be so much more impactful if we dropped it to the high school level as well. Something like that in place always ensures a level of accountability and a level safety.” Jordan McNair’s father said in a statement.
