(USA TODAY) JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — Death certificates have empty spaces to be filled — even if death, like life, never fits easily into bureaucratic boxes. The death certificate of Damon Janes sketches a terrible story.
Usual Occupation: Student. Kind of Business or Industry: High School. Immediate Cause of Death: Blunt impact injury of head. Place of Injury: Football Field.
The nexus of high school football and death trespasses too often on the mythic ethos of Friday night lights. Janes was a workhorse junior running back for Westfield/Brocton, a combined team from two small schools in western New York. He died in a Buffalo hospital three days after taking multiple hits to his head in a game Sept. 13, 2013. He was 16.
