A Return To The Blog: Soccer Referee Is A Dangerous Job

It has been a crazy summer and fall this year, that’s for sure. There’s been a lot for me to catch up on. SeaWorld and the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau continues to make news after the park appealed an OSHA decision limiting trainer interaction with orca whales. The tragic death of Cirque du Soleil acrobat Sarah Guillot-Guyard in a Las Vegas show drew attention to safety issues with harnesses. Wing walker Jane Wicker and her pilot Charlie Schwenker died while preforming at an airshow June 22 in Ohio. There have been several racing related accidents that resulted in drivers’ deaths, and certainly more stories that I’ve missed on my brief attempt at scanning the headlines.

The one story that grabbed my attention the most, however, was the news in July of a soccer game in Brazil, where referee Otavio da Silva and player Josenir dos Santos Abreu got into an altercation during a match. Referee Da Silva apparently decided that the best way to end the argument was to stab Abreu, even though his family, fans and teammates were watching the scene play out. Abreu eventually died of his wound. Fans decided to punish da Silva and in a textbook case of mob mentality brutally killed the referee. 

A Deadspin article states, “They reportedly tied up the referee, beat him, stoned him, lynched him, and then quartered him. When they finished, they cut off his head and placed it on a stake in the center of the field.” There was an attempt at finding and arresting the ones who killed da Silva, but as of the last reports I have heard only one arrest was made. The article also provides a link to a video of what appears to be hospital staff trying to reassemble da Silva’s body like a jigsaw puzzle. I have been known to link to brutal videos from this blog before, but I’m going to leave it out in this case. I have the stomach for it, but I’m not sure too many other people do. It is truly stomach-churning, so be careful, dear reader, if you decided to look for it.

That story makes the other major soccer ref death seem tame by comparison. A Utah teenage soccer player punched referee Ricardo Portillo during a game in Salt Lake City on April 27. Portillo fell into a coma and died May 4. The teen has been charged with manslaughter, and due to the fact that he was 17 at the time, could be charged as an adult.

Morosini, Muamba, And More From The World Of Football

It's been a strange couple of weeks for football fans and players around the world (or soccer fans, if you are from the U.S. like me). The pinnacle being the death on-field of Italian Piermario Morosini who died yesterday of an apparent heart-related condition at age 25. This after the near death of 23-year-old Zaire-born Fabrice Muamba on March 17 of what seems at this time to be a similar condition. Muamba seems to be improving although he is not out of the hospital. Reports are that he may receive a defibrillator to keep something like this from happening again.

Meanwhile, a match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur made headlines today for the wrong reasons. Before the two competed at Wembley, the crowd was to have a minute of silence in respect for both Morosini and in remembrance of the 96 fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster on April, 15, 1989. However, a small group of Chelsea fans decided to interrupt the silence and be disrespectful.

The Hillsborough disaster was an incident in the audience section in which more people were trying to enter into Hillsborough Stadium on the side assigned to Liverpool fans than the section could hold. As people outside heard the cheering from inside the stadium to signify the start of the match, the ones trying to get in formed a crush that caused many people inside to crush against each other and the fence. Police mismanagement of the crisis played a part as well. The whole disaster is much more complicated than this brief synopsis. Perhaps, soon, when I have more time, I'll look into writing up the whole ordeal.

Extra Reading: Legends Revealed Blogs

I'm easily distracted, in case my absence from this blog hasn't made that clear. So I'm out in the internet looking for inspiration to write another blog entry, and I come across a series of blogs by Brian Cronin about urban legends and myths. His most extensive is Comic Book Legends Revealed, but he works on other subjects like sports and entertainment. These entries are like popcorn: Once one has popped up, the information just keeps popping and popping, and I have almost spent the entire winter reading through his blogs.

That's how I found his entries on soccer player Goran Tunjic, who was penalized for dropping dead on the field during a play. I also found Cronin's debunking of part of the myth surrounding the death of audience member Meredith Hunter at a Rolling Stones concert. Hunter's death at the hands of Hell's Angels security guards is tragic and real, but like most stories, it gets more dramatic upon each retelling, which causes some misinformation.

Needless to say, these are the types of stories I like to work on for my own blog, so I decided to share them here. Check out these and Cronin's other blogs. It will give you something to do while I motivate myself into another blog entry.

Magician Died In Halloween Stunt: The Life Of Joseph "Amazing Joe" Burrus

At 32-years-old, Joseph Burrus had made a name for himself as an amateur magician. Specifically, the name was “Amazing Joe.”  On October 31, 1990, Burrus planned on performing a stunt so spectacular that it would move him from working small crowds of children to a spot as a big time illusionist.

Looking more like someone from the 1920s, he set up his stunt at Blackbeard’s Family Fun Center in Fresno, CA.  His plan was to be handcuffed, enter a clear coffin, lowered into a “grave,”  and allow himself to be buried under three feet of dirt topped with four feet of cement. He would then free himself from the chains, burrow up through the dirt and cement, then appear to the wonderment and applause of his fans.

So, in front of an audience of 150, including his wife, two children, and parents, Burrus smiled and joked before being put into the box and lowered into the ground. Sadly, though Burrus was buried alive, he was pulled out of the grave dead.

After the workers had finished topping up the hole with cement, the level of whole slab sunk about two feet. Realizing the stunt had gone wrong, people rushed the grave and tried to dig Burrus out. He was eventually pulled out, but paramedics on the scene were unable to revive him. His death was due to asphyxia.

He had preformed a similar stunt before using only dirt. Reports state that he did not do enough testing or calculations for his equipment before deciding to add the cement to the act.

For more information here is an article from Ain't No Way To Go.

Also, here is a report on Burrus from "A Current Affair" :

Race Car Driver Dan Wheldon Dies After Las Vegas Crash

The 33-year-old IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon died after a crash today, one in which more than a dozen cars were involved. The crash occurred on lap 12 (some are reporting lap 13). Wheldon was air-lifted to a hospital after the accident. Fellow IndyCar drivers Pippa Mann, J.R. Hildebrand, and Will Power were also sent to hospitals with various injuries.

Here is one article on the crash. Here is an earlier one, reported before Wheldon's death, with a lot of detail of the crash.

Naturally, YouTube has video of the crash, which can be disturbing for some viewers. This was the live video from ABC of the accident:

Chinese Pilot Confirmed Dead

The pilot who couldn't escape from the jet crash at the Beijing airshow has been confirmed to have been killed in the crash. One other pilot was able to eject, and no spectators were injured. Here is one article about the incident.

Jet Crashes At Chinese Air Show: One Pilot Feared Dead

AP is reporting that a jet crashed at an air show in Beijing. One pilot was able to eject, but the other is missing and presumed dead. More information here.