Chuck Hughes: The UNFORTUNATE time when an NFL player died on the field and everyone continued playing

Chuck Hughes was a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, who met his untimely end on the NFL field.

Chuck Hughes: The UNFORTUNATE time when an NFL player died on the field and everyone continued playing

Chuck Hughes passed away on the field in the middle of a game.

The NFL was wild in the early days, with players having the liberty to play as rough as possible. However, these were the days when medical science had not progressed as much as it has today due to which the after-effects of playing football and constantly taking hits were yet to be discovered.

Due to the early style of play, many athletes suffered terrible injuries and, many a time even passed away due to the severity of the damages.

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Looking back at the game of football in 1905, football killed athletes who were actively playing football. Nearly 18 players died that year, many of whom were students. The game has now become much safer in comparison to before, but by no means is it still absolutely safe. Today, let’s look at the unfortunate story of the only player in league history who has died on the field in between a game.

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Chuck Hughes was a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, who met his untimely end on the NFL field. On the 24th of October 1971, Hughes was on the sidelines as a substitute player. He was just 28 years of age and with just 10 minutes left to go in the game; it was his time to go on the field to replace another teammate who had sustained a minor injury.

Chuck Hughes passed away due to a heart attack

Hughes was all well and good until there were just 62 seconds left on the clock when he suddenly fell to the ground. The Lions were playing the Chicago Bears and when this particular incident occurred, players assumed that he was attempting to fake an injury in order to get some extra time for his team.

As a result, the opposition began to yell at him and began swearing in an attempt to make him realize that they were not buying his act. However, Chuck lay on the ground even after the game had ended. It was at this point that the medical staff hopped onto the field and began to examine the wideout.

Chuck Hughes
The players believed Chuck Hughes was faking an injury

They were shocked to see that he was not faking an injury, but was actually out. He was not breathing.

Initially, they attempted to give him CPR to revive him, but it was all for nothing, as Chuck was already long gone. He was rushed to the hospital, but all attempts to revive him bore no fruit. Chuck Hughes had died on the NFL field and the game continued to be played.

The Bears had outplayed the Lions the entire game and the score in the final moments of the game was 28-23. The Lions were not as optimistic about the game and were just attempting to play the game out. This is probably one of the reasons that Hughes’ teammates did not get alarmed when they saw their teammate down on the field. The league then did not have any rule that stated a game could be ended early on in case a player died, which is another reason why the clock was run down to the last second.

It was eventually found that Chuck Hughes died due to a fatal heart attack, one of his arteries was clogged and restricted proper blood flow. While he did not die of any injury sustained to the head, this story remains a bizarre one, as it took players and officials to tend to the athlete.

The wideout’s family did not cite football as the reason for his death but did sue a hospital that had failed to diagnose his condition earlier for a whopping $21.5 million. The matter was eventually settled between the two parties mutually.

With references from: CRACKED and NYPOST

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