MANKATO, Minn. – The Minnesota Vikings returned to the practice field Thursday, hoping that football would provide a measure of comfort as they mourn the death of teammate Korey Stringer.
“I think we took a small baby step,” coach Dennis Green said after a morning practice session that he said was the most difficult in his coaching career. “It’s important for us to go back to work. Yesterday was a very long day. It’s important for guys to know we have to carry on.”
Stringer, a 335-pound Pro Bowl right tackle, collapsed following an intense practice in stifling heat and humidity Tuesday morning and died 15 hours later at a Mankato hospital of complications from heat stroke.
Fans lined up along the team’s practice field at Minnesota State University and clapped as the players filed past for the morning session. Offensive linemen gathered in a tight circle on the field and held hands for a prayer led by line coach Mike Tice.
The Vikings were in helmets and shorts, and the temperature was in the 70s, 20 degrees lower than Tuesday, when the heat index reached into the 100s.
About a dozen bouquets and a few balloons memorializing Stringer were tied to the fence near the players entrance to the practice field.
Practice was much quieter than usual, with coaches not barking as loud and fans subdued, and was cut short by nearly half an hour. Though Green and others had talked about difficulty focusing on football, Randy Moss and Cris Carter made several spectacular catches during a scrimmage, drawing cheers from the fans.
As he did Wednesday, Green mostly turned aside questions about the heat and whether the team could have prevented Stringer’s death. Tuesday’s workout was a full-pads session and Stringer threw up at least three times before seeking a trainer’s help at the end of the morning workout. He had been unable to complete Monday’s practice.
“We know how to run a training camp. We’ll continue to run the training camp,” Green said.
When a reporter pressed him about why the team wasn’t talking about medical questions, he said, “We chose not to.”
“I’m not going to sit here and act like I have answers as far as what happens when a tragedy occurs, but I’ll answer questions about the game of football,” Green said.
The Vikings had several counselors on hand to talk with players. None skipped Thursday’s workout.
“Because we’re a team, we’re a family, I can’t think of a better place for us to be than together,” Green said.
Stringer’s death shocked nearly everyone in the Vikings community and around the league.
“I’ve never seen him mad, I’ve never seen him argue with a player,” said Moss, who broke down during a news conference Wednesday. “I think if he’s looking down on us right now, he sees all the pain that we feel. But at the same time, he knows the show must go on.”
In an interview with the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Knowles said doctors measured Stringer’s temperature at 108.8, a level that is fatal in 80 percent of cases.
It wasn’t clear whether an autopsy would be performed. The Blue Earth County coroner wouldn’t take a phone call Thursday. At Immanuel-St. Joseph’s Mayo Health System hospital, where Stringer died and a pathologist sometimes fills in for the coroner, spokesman Kevin Burns said he knew nothing about an autopsy in the Stringer case.
Stringer’s family, which includes wife Kelci and 3-year-old son Kodie, issued a statement Thursday thanking the public for support. Stringer, a first-round draft pick out of Ohio State in 1995, had problems keeping his weight under control and often had trouble in the first days of camp.
