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Clinkscale verdict a reminder that Steelers made correct decision
Published: 1/3/2012 5:37 PM
Last Modified: 1/3/2012 6:04 PM

Football -- sorry to all you face-painting, smack-talking folks who prefer to believe otherwise -- isn’t life and death.

But, in this case, it is.

The Denver Broncos will be mile-high hosts when the Pittsburgh Steelers fly to town for a Sunday playoff game.

During a 2007 trip to Denver, Pittsburgh safety Ryan Clark almost died. Clark, who has Sickle Cell Trait, had a violent reaction to the altitude and it cost him his spleen, his gall bladder and 30 pounds.

When Pittsburgh returned to Denver for a regular season game in 2009, Mike Tomlin wouldn’t let Clark play. Tomlin won’t permit Clark to play in this game either, never mind that it’s a playoff game.

Good for Tomlin.

If the Clark-less Steelers get outscored in Denver, all they’ll lose is a game. Life goes on. If Clark played and a repeat of 2007 occurred, his children could lose a father.

On Tuesday -- the same day Tomlin announced Clark was banned from playing against the Broncos -- this happened: The Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s office said former University of Tulsa linebacker George Clinkscale (whose died after participating in a church boxing match in September) died from sudden exertion due to complications of Sickle Cell Trait. Like Clark, Clinkscale was a father.

That medical examiner’s verdict reinforced what I already believed: The best decision anyone will make in the Steelers-Broncos game -- or any other game this NFL postseason -- has already been made.



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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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