Heat Ruled Out in One Football Death

Aug. 20 -- Investigators today ruled out heat as the cause of death for one of the two Texas high school players who died after collapsing during practice this weekend.

Harris County medical examiner Joye Carter said today that an enlarged heart, not heat exhaustion, killed 14-year-old Leonard Carter Jr.

Carter, who would have started his sophomore year at Houston's Lamar High School today, collapsed during practice on Saturday and died two hours later. Family members said doctors at Texas Children's Hospital told them the boy's body temperature was 107 degrees, but Carter said that reading was wrong. His temperature, she said, was actually 100.7 degrees and heat played a minimal role in his death.

Carter's death came less than 24 hours after 15-year-old Stephen Taylor of Luling, Texas died following a football practice. Early reports indicate that Taylor died of heart failure, but tests were being done to determine if heat played a role. Officials are still waiting for autopsy results.

Unlike when Minnesota Vikings lineman Korey Stringer collapsed at a practice earlier this month, the weather was not unusually hot in Texas over the weekend. Temperatures were only in the 80s on Saturday, though humidity was extremely high.

There have been 11 football related deaths this year, three of which were determined to be the direct result of heatstroke. The Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury says that is about average.

Emulating Their Heroes

Leonard Carter's father said one thing that could be done is to have paramedics at practices, just as they are at games.

"I think we need to take some type of measures to monitor our children and to have the appropriate emergency equipment and personnel at these practices," Leonard Carter Sr., said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "I mean, there are paramedics at the football games. They're there, but they're not at our practices."

Carter is the third high school football player to die after a practice this summer, but even before the high schoolers took to the fields, there had been two other high-