CHICAGO - When I got out of bed Wednesday morning at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, I pushed power on the television remote and quickly switched the channel to ESPN to make sure I hadn’t missed any exciting sports news during my rest.

ESPN went to a commercial so I clicked to the next available sports commentary - CNN. It was here I saw a report from the Minnesota Vikings camp. This sparked some interest in me. What could it be? Did Robert Smith come out of retirement?

No.

The report was too grim to be the stage for a Smith return.

CNN reported Viking offensive tackle Korey Stringer had died after a training session, a scenario that has become all too common to the sport of football this summer - last month a player from the University of Florida died under similar circumstances.

It was after hearing this report that I realized I still had to go downstairs to the ballroom level of the hotel, where this devastating theme would be echoed all morning at the 2001 Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon.

As I stepped into ballrooms four and five, I took my seat and listened to Illinois head football coach Ron Turner give the media his synopsis of the upcoming Illinois season, but he, along with the media, couldn’t help but bring up the news about Stringer.

Question after question about this issue were thrown at Northwestern head coach Randy Walker, Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel and even MSU’s own Bobby Williams.

The biggest question might have been: “Coach, what do you do to prevent this?”

There were many different answers - like we’ll have more water breaks, later practices to get out of the heat and Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr said he even gives his team popsicle breaks.

But being in that room revealed the most interesting answer any coach could give a member of the media, though you’ll never see it in print.

These quotes were found in every coach’s eyes. Fear glared off each man’s pupils. Every Big Ten chief taking the podium knew it could just as easily be his man in the headlines, as it was for Stinger to be found there Wednesday morning.

Stringer’s death took away from the hoopla of Big Ten football - I won’t lie - but it’s an issue that needs to be addressed. Without the players, there wouldn’t be college football.

College athletes are human, they are just like you and I. Playing college football is hard work and a lot of people understand that, but there is a time and a place when football needs to be set aside for the welfare of an individual. But in order for that to happen, coaches have to be willing to treat their athletes as though they were their own child, not as the guys who go out each Saturday and register them win after win.

I really don’t believe coaches use athletes as their tools of winning - they care - but it’s just scary to think a sport you love so much is literally killing people to prepare for the season.

And there is no clear-cut answer to what is taking these young athletes’ lives. It’s thought that sometimes when players train they’re not taking in enough water - which leads to overheating - and eventually their bodies just shut down, leading many to believe heat is the culprit in these situations.

But we all know the heat isn’t going away and it’s the job of coaches as well as athletes - being in tune with their bodies - to be aware of the climate while training, to know when enough is enough and to communicate well with each other.

On Wednesday, the media and Big Ten coaches were all on the same page - for probably the first time and last time ever - but what happened to Stringer is what creates awareness.

It’s that awareness that should have been at practice Tuesday with Stringer, with the young man at Florida and when this news first hit last winter with a football player from Florida State who died.

No one staying at the Sheraton wanted to wake to the news of Stringer’s passing, but it’s a harsh reality of the sport.

His death definitely took precedence over the first day of Big Ten activities, but everyone here in Chicago understands it’s these issues that need to be dealt with before anyone takes the field this fall.

Paul Day, a State News sports reporter, can be reached at daypaul@msu.edu.