The whole “safety in sports” craze that is going on in most major sports always seems a little overblown to me.  I mean, let the quarterback get hit sometimes, right?  But lately there have been a lot more reports surfacing that show how dangerous these sports actually are.  For instance, I saw recently (sorry I couldn’t find the link) that some high percentage of football players are not reporting their concussions for fear of not being able to play the next week.  That’s disturbing, but then this news goes even farther.  Apparently a Chicago boxer died immediately following his fight in Philadelphia:

Chicago boxer and former national Golden Gloves champ Francisco Rodriguez has died after a bout in Philadelphia.

Boxing promoter Dominic Pesoli says Rodriguez died Sunday night after losing a USBA super bantamweight bout Friday night against Teon Kennedy.

Philadelphia promoter J. Russell Peltz says Rodriguez began to lose consciousness as the Chicago boxer sat in his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10th round. Rodriguez, 25, was taken to a hospital and underwent emergency surgery.

The kid was also a National Gold Gloves champion.  This kind of thing is tragic.  Is this the straw that broke the camel’s back for me?  No, I think we still have to be reasonable and understand the nature of these activities.  That being said, you can’t help but feel for Rodriguez’s family and wonder if there were more precautions taken, would it have even happened?

***UPDATE: From South Side Sheik: “Some good news from this tragic story. The boxer’s organs will help save eight lives, including his uncle who had been on a kidney transplant list for quite a while.”