Saturday, March 01, 2008

Scary moments

Auburn’s first scrimmage of spring practice ended on an extremely bad note this morning: Junior defensive end Antonio Coleman was taken off the field in an ambulance after the final play of the scrimmage. It’s not clear what happened on the play: Offensive tackle Lee Ziemba was blocking Coleman, who hit the ground before the end of the play and lay—apparently motionless—for at least 15 minutes. Emergency medical personnel and Auburn’s trainers immobilized Coleman’s neck, lifted him onto a wheeled stretcher and placed him in the ambulance while the fans on hand cheered. A few more minutes passed before the stretcher left for East Alabama Medical Center.

It’s much, much too early to speculate about the injury, its causes or its duration. Coleman didn’t appear to be moving when he was carried to the ambulance, and no Auburn coach or player gave the crowd any kind of thumbs-up or other signal. However, Tommy Tuberville said Coleman was able to move and respond to coaches and medical staff. Obviously, that’s a very, very good sign.

I’ll have an update as soon as any news comes out about Coleman’s condition.