WEST VIRGINIA MIDDLE SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER DIES FROM HEAD INJURY DURING PRACTICERobert Craddock said Cohen was going on his second year of football when he sustained a deadly head injury at practice on Aug. 23. "He was at football practice, just normal practice. Attorney Matt Wetherington, the firm's founder, said school football is "still the wild west" in terms of mandating safety measures to protect kids from life-altering or deadly injuries. For middle and high school students, traumatic deaths (head injuries, spine injuries, etc.) accounted for four deaths in 2019, zero deaths in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, four deaths in 2021, three deaths in 2022 and two deaths in 2023.