Memphis Football Player Karmelo Overton Collapses on Field After Being Hit by 2 Players

A University of Memphis linebacker was rushed to the hospital after collapsing on the field during a game.

According to a local Tennessee newspaper commercial appeal, redshirt freshman Karmelo Overton collapsed Friday, Nov. 8, during a home game against Rice University at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

Overton was tackled by two Rice players during the kickoff, the paper reported, and briefly fell to the field. After standing up and starting to run toward the sideline, his legs gave out and he collapsed again for an “extended period of time,” surrounded by his teammates and medical staff.

Carmelo Overton at the 2023 Liberty Bowl.

Carmelo Overton/Instagram

Commercial appeal reported that Overton was taken to Regional One Medical Center in Memphis, and coach Ryan Silverfield said he was awake and talking after he collapsed. Memphis later went on to win against Rice, 27-20.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with him,” Silverfield said. “We’re still running some tests at the local hospital. But I’m asking Tiger fans to keep going [Overton] in my thoughts and prayers.”

University of Memphis football did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Memphis Tigers football helmet.

Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty

This is not the first time in recent months that a student athlete has collapsed and had to be hospitalized after sustaining an injury on the field. Last month, a high school football player in Pennsylvania, Carter Mason, collapsed on his side after a “hard helmet hit.”

“After a hard helmet hit on the field, he made it to the sideline and collapsed. He has not regained consciousness and is bleeding on the brain,” his aunt Sandra Friend wrote in a GoFundMe fundraiser after Mason was hospitalized.

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High school football player remains in hospital but ‘breathing on his own’ after ‘hard helmet hit’ in game

Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium where the Memphis Tigers play.

Joe Murphy/Getty

The high school student’s aunt later revealed that he had suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and was unable to have “meaningful communication” and had been placed on a feeding tube while in hospital rehab. By Oct. 22, she shared news that things were “on the mend” and that Mason was being visited by his friends, coaches and family and was undergoing therapy for coordination and memory.

In September, Florida high school student Chance Gainer, 18, died after collapsing on the field during an away game. NBC affiliate WJHG reported that the teenager had no pulse when EMS arrived at the scene, before medical personnel eventually found him. Gainer was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Blountstown, Florida.

Back in February, a Furman University football player in Greenville, SC, died suddenly after collapsing during a team practice. Defensive lineman Bryce Stanfield, 21, “collapsed unexpectedly at morning practice … He was taken to a local hospital, where he was placed on life support,” according to a letter from the school’s president.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education