Korey Stringer's legacy: Has the NFL done enough to prevent heat-related deaths?

August 1, 2001 should have been a beautiful, sunny summer day. Instead it was one of the darkest in National Football League history.

Korey Stringer passed away 13 years ago today, after tragically succumbing to heat stroke he suffered at Minnesota Vikings training camp a day earlier. The offensive lineman's passing brought about changes to the way NFL training camps operate today, but is it enough?

Since Stringer's passing, training camps are now required to have team doctors and trainers on the field at all times, as well as an ambulance present. Wearing lighter colored uniforms, monitoring proper hydration, and limiting the number of sessions players are forced to wear pads have made mild improvements, but training camp is still a very unpleasant experience for a vast majority of players. 

Something some of their former colleagues have little sympathy for:

It's always been puzzling why a league that takes so much out of its players physically throughout the season starts it off with dozens of practices outside in the searing heat. With the amount of money organizations have, you think it wouldn't be that difficult to set up enough air-conditioned facilities to house all their preseason activities when conditions become extreme. 

That's not going to get rid of the toll it takes on players' bodies or rid them of the rigors of any bumps and bruises, but avoiding heat related issues seems controllable. 

That assertion is something that Vikings head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman confirmed in an ESPN story from 2011, the tenth anniversary of Stringer's death. 

"I can't prevent someone from getting an ACL injury," Sugarman said. "I can prevent someone from getting heat illness."

Heat-related problems are not unique to the NFL. A study in 2013 shared by the New York Daily News showed that heat and other non-traumatic causes of death are twice as common as those caused by a contact injury in high school and college football. 

Perhaps the longstanding way camps are conducted has more to do with the culture of the league than anything else. The pressure for players to project a tough image can sometimes stand in the way of progress in overall player safety. If a player running out of bounds instead of subjecting himself to a needless hit is frowned upon, what will the response be to a request for better practice conditions?

Of course part of the problem with training camp is the short window teams have to deal with. Cramming as many practices and meetings in as they can in a little over a month makes sense from a competitive standpoint, but the toll it takes on a player's body can't be ignored. 

Improving conditions at camp may mean reducing the limitations on OTAs and shortening the offseason in order to avoid a month long-gauntlet - something that may please the coaches but not the players. 

Heat-related issues figure to be well down the pecking order of NFL concerns right now. Head injuries, knee problems and a host of other ailments are more common concerns about player safety, but if Stringer's death taught us anything, it's that there are serious dangers about playing football that have nothing to do with contact.