Three high school football players have died this week alone

Three high school football players died this week after separate on-field incidents, adding fuel to the fiery debate about the health effects of football-related injuries.

Suffolk County, New York police said Tom Cutinella — who played for Shoreham-Wading River High School on Long Island — died Wednesday night after suffering a head injury from an on-field collision during a game that day. Demario Harris, Jr. of Charles Henderson High School in Troy, Alabama, died Sunday after suffering what his father described as a brain hermorrhage caused by "a hit he took during [last] Friday's game." Finally, Roseville High School in North Carolina's Isaiah Langston collapsed during pre-game warmups for a game last Friday and died Monday.

A study from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research reports an average of 12 high school or college football players die each year from a variety of causes, including heat-related illness, underlying heart conditions, and subdural hematomas.

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