Gaines Adams, a 26 year old defensive end acquired by the Chicago Bears from Tampa Bay this season for a second round draft pick, was pronounced dead at 7:21 AM CT this morning.
Adams was found unresponsive by his girlfriend in his Greenwood, South Carolina home of an apparent heart attack, though an official cause of death has not been determined.
An autopsy is scheduled to be completed today.
Adams was a talented, wiry defensive end who had a great college career, being taken by the Bucs with the fourth overall pick in 2007. The Bears obviously had high hopes for the young man, given the high pick they used to obtain him.
While it’s not fair to speculate on a cause of death, whenever such a young man seemingly in the prime of his life is struck down, rumors will fly. There had been talk that the Bears had encouraged Adams to bulk up, which naturally has created unfounded steroid chatter.
But perhaps he had some sort of genetic defect, who knows? Again, it’s not fair to engage in that sort of discussion, especially so soon after such a tragic death.
Whenever a young man dies, it always serves to remind us just how relatively unimportant sports are in the grand scheme of things. Yet, one can’t help but wonder what kind of a football player Adams would have turned out to be.
We’ll never know, of course, but what we do know is that football players are human beings, nothing more, nothing less. They seemingly can do most anything on a football field, but on the field of life, they answer to the same God we all do.
And when it’s your time, it’s your time. It may not make sense to us now, but no one, not even a professional athlete, can cheat death.
RIP Gaines Adams.
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