Sports

Should U of M Keep Football Coach Jerry Kill?

The head of the University of Minnesota football team had a seizure on Saturday during a game. It's the third seizure at a game in the past two years and the fourth on a game day.

(Associate Regional Editor Kevira Voegele wrote this post.)

University of Minnesota head football coach Jerry Kill had a seizure on Saturday during a game against Western Illinois and left at halftime.

Kill had two other seizures during games since he became coach in December 2010, and another seizure on a game day.

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On Sunday, Star Tribune columnist Jim Souhan questioned why the University of Minnesota (U of M) continues to keep him on staff.

The face of your program can’t belong to someone who may be rushed to the hospital at any moment of any game, or practice, or news conference,” Souhan wrote. “No one who buys a ticket to TCF Bank Stadium should be rewarded with the sight of a middle-aged man writhing on the ground.”

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Brett Boyum, president of the Board of Directors for the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota, responded to Souhan in an open letter.

“The truth is Mr. Souhan, no one who has been graced with a ticket to life should have to lie on the ground writhing,” Boyum wrote in the letter published on bringmethenews.com. “But, the reality is 60,000 of us here in the state of Minnesota endure seizures. None of us stop pushing toward our personal goals and knocking down the barriers that stand in our way, including opinions like yours.”

Gophers Athletic Director Norwood Teague says the school is 100 percent behind Kill.

“He's an epileptic. He has seizures. We deal with it and we move on,” Teague told the Star Tribune. “If I felt like it was affecting things, it would be different."

What do you think? Should the U of M stand behind Kill? Or are his seizures too much of a distraction for the players, the school and the fans?

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