Maryville High School coach George Quarles confirmed reports of the death of Crimson Tide lineman Aaron Douglas, the former Freshman All-American at Tennessee who later transferred to Alabama. Douglas died in Jacksonville of unknown causes sometime after he sent this tweet from his account last night. There are no other confirmed details regarding cause of death at this point.
Teammates and those who covered him have been tweeting in memoriams for a while today leading up to the confirmation from his former coach. Douglas' short but turbulent career is better summarized here by our homegirl who watched him arrive, play for Tennessee, and then leave under a fog of personal problems for JUCO life and then the University of Alabama. There are a lot of things to say at this point, but the best one is probably "condolences to everyone involved," and not anything like this, ESPN.
In conclusion: condolences, the only thing to say, both to Tennessee and to Alabama, a school that has had as bad a month as we can remember a school having in our lifetime. (Via @FO_College)
UPDATE: From ESPN PR:
"We apologize for the tone of a post that appeared on ESPN.com's Rumor Central page today related to the tragic death of Aaron Douglas. It did not meet our editorial standards and was removed upon discovery, within 20 minutes of going live."
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