Videotapes of the workout at Northwestern University at which Rashidi Wheeler collapsed and died earlier this month provide vivid images of Wheeler’s struggles that day and new details that likely will heighten the debate over the school’s actions.
The tapes appear to reinforce the allegation that the drill was conducted outside of National Collegiate Athletic Association regulations on preseason workouts, even though no coaches were on hand.
The senior safety is seen wobbling and then dropping to his hands and knees, unable to complete his wind sprints. The tapes also show the workout continuing under the direction of Northwestern staff members even after an ambulance arrived, and even as some of the players held hands and bowed their heads on the sidelines while paramedics tried to resuscitate Wheeler.
In addition to recording those final moments, the tapes contain other images more mundane but perhaps just as important: a regimented series of sprints monitored by trainers with clipboards and a stopwatch on a university athletic field.
NCAA rules dictate that voluntary workouts are not to be “recorded for the purpose of reporting such information to coaching staff members or other student-athletes,” so the mere existence of the tapes adds to the debate over the propriety of the Aug. 3 workout.
James Montgomery, who represents the Wheeler family, said athletic department staff members recorded the workout and later gave copies of the tapes to Wheeler’s mother. Montgomery, the Chicago partner of lawyer Johnnie Cochran, provided copies of the tapes to the Tribune.
The NCAA, under pressure from Division I student-athletes, in April tightened the definition of a voluntary off-season workout.
According to the NCAA Division I Manual, an athletic activity or workout is “voluntary” when all of these conditions are met: players–and not coaches or other team staff members–initiate the workout, no information about the workout is recorded or reported to coaches, and players are not punished for refusing to participate or given incentives to participate.
A Northwestern football staff member who monitored the Aug. 3 workout said there were “consequences” for non-participation.
The staff member, speaking on condition he not be identified, said players who failed to participate–about 12 this year–normally complete the workout the first day of regular practice, which started Friday in Kenosha.
Players said they like to complete the workout before the start of regular practice because the series of sprints saps them of energy at a time they are competing for starting positions on the team.
Athletic Director Rick Taylor has told football coach Randy Walker to stop the conditioning test–which Walker brought to Northwestern from Miami (Ohio) when he was hired more than two years ago–until an internal university review of Wheeler’s death is completed.
Taylor declined to comment Friday, referring all questions to a university spokesman, who also would not discuss the workout tapes.
NCAA officials would not comment on any possible rules violations by the football program. But Wallace Renfro, an NCAA spokesman, addressed how the preseason rules work generally.
“The issue really is if a quarterback and a receiver decided to go out and run some patterns, that’s a voluntary workout,” Renfro said. “If they decided to do that with three or four other players and even use team plays for this season, that’s a voluntary workout.
“If someone is recording who’s there and it’s regimented, that’s not voluntary.”
The NCAA considers a workout rule infraction a secondary violation, meaning it was an isolated incident that does not give a team a significant competitive advantage.
Two key issues
In the aftermath of Wheeler’s death, his family and its lawyers have focused on two issues that question the university’s actions: Did Wheeler receive proper medical care? Was this workout held in violation of NCAA rules?
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, now acting as a spokesman for the family, called the pre-camp workout a “supervised, unlawful practice” and questioned whether the staff on hand was adequately prepared for an emergency.
“They didn’t have medical emergency infrastructure because it would make it look official when it is not official,” Jackson said.
Montgomery said the tapes were upsetting because they show the sprints continuing even though Wheeler had collapsed along the sidelines.
“I am simply amazed that they continued these sprints,” Montgomery said. “The kid was down. They knew he was an asthmatic, and they knew he told them he was dying. Yet they were more concerned with continuing their sprints.”
The question of medical attention and sideline equipment is a crucial point for Wheeler’s family. They said the staff was slow in responding to the medical emergency, in part because they were overwhelmed with other players collapsing along the sidelines and because a university telephone used for emergencies was inoperable.
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The NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook recommends that member universities have in place emergency plans for athletic contests, as well as out-of-season practices and skill sessions.
In particular, the NCAA handbook recommends: “Access to a working telephone or other telecommunications device, whether fixed or mobile, should be assured.”
A chaotic scene
When Wheeler collapsed and stopped breathing, players said a chaotic scene ensued.
Linebacker Pat Durr said the head trainer, Tory Aggeler, had to use player Napoleon Harris’ cellular telephone to call for an ambulance. “There was so much chaos, everyone was yelling, `Does anyone have a cell phone?’ The only one that I was aware of was Napoleon’s,” Durr said.
Wheeler’s mother, Linda Addison-Will, claims the university was negligent in providing care to her dying son. “If they had communication, this could have been prevented,” she said. “They didn’t even have a phone that worked on the field.”
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office has determined the 22-year-old Wheeler died of bronchial asthma but is planning further toxicology tests amid player accounts that Wheeler and others may have taken a potentially harmful supplement before the strenuous workout.
In preparation for the Aug. 3 workout, according to accounts from a player and a staff member, Wheeler may have taken the supplement Ultimate Orange, which claims to help athletes through tough workouts. Ultimate Orange contains ma huang, which is an herbal ephedrine, and guarana, another energy-enhancing herbal product.
While Ultimate Orange is available over the counter, the NCAA bans the use of ephedrine by athletes.
The workout required players, dressed in shorts, to complete a series of wind sprints. It started with 10 100-yard sprints with 15 seconds of rest after each. Then came eight 80s with 13-second breaks, six 60s with nine-second breaks, and four 40s with seven-second breaks.
Watchful eyes
Monitoring the workout were Aggeler, perhaps as many as four assistant trainers, one student trainer, the team’s strength and conditioning director Larry Lilja and one of Lilja’s assistants, according to an earlier statement from the university.
Wheeler, a 6-foot, 212-pound safety, joined his teammates at the university’s field hockey field about 4 p.m. for the workout, which had started a little late, according to players, because the video cameras had not been set up.
One camera was positioned at each end of the field. A staff member with a stopwatch timed the sprints as trainers stood at one end of the field with water bottles.
The first group of players, the quarterbacks and linebackers, completed their workout without any obvious problems.
Wheeler ran with the second group of 20, which consisted mostly of wide receivers and defensive backs.
As the players lined up for their first 100-yard sprint, someone off camera can be heard counting down, “3, 2, 1. First 100. Good start.” Wheeler completed his 100- and 80-yard sprints with no problem.
But in the 60-yard sprints, Wheeler began to lag behind his teammates. In the first 60-yard sprint, Wheeler was one of the last to finish, just making the required time. By the fifth 60-yarder he was last, finishing almost 10 yards behind the pack.
Next were the 40s. In the tapes, Wheeler can be seen struggling just to keep his balance during the first 40.
When the timekeeper shouted, “Time!” Wheeler could not be seen on the tape. His teammates, waiting for him at the finish line, yelled encouragement: “Come on, Shidi. . . . Come on.”
“Let’s go, Shidi,” someone else yelled. “Come on. Keep moving.”
Linebacker Kevin Bentley, who ran with Wheeler, stepped out of line and helped his struggling teammate.
Wheeler’s final minutes
Near the start of the next sprint, Wheeler collapsed, stood and walked about 5 yards before again collapsing to the artificial surface.
Bentley, joined by Aggeler, ran to assist Wheeler as the sprints continued. Wheeler dropped to his knees on the field and players ran around him to avoid hitting him.
Aggeler has previously said that Wheeler, even after he collapsed, wanted to continue, and when Aggeler reached him, he tried to rebuff him.
“As we were removing him from the field, he said, `No, no,'” Aggeler said. “There was that initial resistance, but I think he knew he wasn’t going to be able to [finish]. He was just exhausted. Then we got him back to the sidelines. . . . He was alert and we were administering to him in a situation that didn’t appear at that time to be totally emergent.”
On the bench and out of view of the cameras, Wheeler labored to breathe.
Bentley has said that Wheeler fell off the bench, looked up at him and said, “K.B., I’m dying.”
Staff remained with Wheeler at all times and he used his L-shaped asthma inhaler.
Still, the wind sprints on the field continued with a third group of players, then a fourth. As Wheeler’s conditioned worsened, the training staff called 911.
Midway through the fourth group’s set of sprints, the tapes show Evanston Fire Department paramedics arriving. One of the cameras panned to the sidelines, capturing worried players gathered around the paramedics and their fallen teammate.
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The tape shows a glimpse of paramedics performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Wheeler. The camera operator then shifted his attention back to the field to capture the next set of sprints before turning the lens back to the sideline.
There, four players held hands. Two knelt as they bowed their heads.
Seconds later the tape abruptly ended and someone was heard saying, “Cannot finish the rest.”