CHAMPAIGN – In case you’ve forgotten, Rashidi Wheeler, a senior on the Northwestern football team, died on Aug. 3.
It hasn’t yet been four months since that tragic day, but both critics and fans seem to ignore this unrelenting reality all too easily.
He was, to his fellow players and his coaches, a teammate and a friend. He shared with them a bond that can’t easily be put into words — one that extended far beyond the gridiron.
It’s actually quite amazing that people manage to say much more than a sentence about this team and its season without mentioning Rashidi’s name.
His death came shortly after collapsing during a conditioning test in front of dozens of teammates. It came two days after NU was named the preseason Big Ten favorite by the media.
Since then, the Wildcats have suffered through an onslaught of questions, accusations and lawsuits. They struggled through a season that went wrong; a year capped off by a six-game losing streak; a campaign where injury was the most common call in the playbook.
And it all traces back to Aug. 3.
It would be a major mistake to say that this one event occurring before preseason training camp was and is the cause of every problem in the NU football program. This team is not, as some would have it, cursed or hexed by an unseen force. It made errors this season that any team in America could have made — simple stuff like missed tackles and overthrown passes. NU did not go 4-7 because Rashidi Wheeler died.
But if it ever seemed that the Cats didn’t have the same energy and enthusiasm they once had, you have to wonder if this was a function of their tragic loss.
Don’t think for a second that the Cats managed to “clear their minds” of the matter completely. The most difficult part of assessing this stems from the fact that losing Rashidi affected each individual on the team in a different way.
“I think it had an effect that we can’t even describe,” senior tackle Lance Clelland said shortly after Thursday’s season-ending loss to Illinois. “It was very big — a very big problem to overcome.
“We all lost a friend and a brother. He was someone that we sweated and bled with and just loved.”
For seniors like Clelland, it was the loss of a four-year friend. For freshmen, it was a difficult situation to deal with in their first days on campus.
Any way you look at it, it had an effect of some sort.
Death does not go away. NU can celebrate Rashidi’s life — and to the players’ credit, they have done so ever since Aug. 3.
That celebration is also a burden, however. Senior linebacker Kevin Bentley, one of Rashidi’s best friends, said last week that he hasn’t walked onto the field without thinking about his friend.
Bentley insists that Rashidi’s death hasn’t altered his ability to focus on game day, and there’s no reason not to believe that.
But as Clelland said, each person on the team handled this differently. Both he and Bentley said there wasn’t enough time to grieve, given the time constraint posed by the approaching season.
If you were to talk to every NU player, it’s probable that at least one — if not many more — would say he never resolved every last issue internally.
If you were to talk to every coach, it’s probable that the feelings of sorrow and doubt haven’t dissipated.
Somewhere, somehow, Rashidi’s death played a role in the 2001 season.
That isn’t the most troubling issue, either.
There have been no winners in this ordeal — and there never will be. A lawsuit appears destined for a bitter court battle that won’t end until most current NU undergraduates have left Evanston. A team with high hopes fell into an abyss of losing and heartbreak. A coach might have lost some of the faith his team had instilled in him.
A young man didn’t get to celebrate his 23rd birthday.
For that, there are no eloquent words, no soothing elixir.
“It was definitely a factor,” Clelland said. “It sucked.”
And there are no answers, no definite conclusions.
Just questions and curiosities about what might have been.
Glenn Kasses is a Medill junior. He can be reached at [email protected].
