The sudden death of former Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins was understandably a leading segment of Pro Football Talk’s Monday episode on NBC Sports.
Mike Florio and former NFL defensive lineman Mike Golic expressed their shock when initially hearing the news Saturday that Haskins had been killed on a Florida interstate highway when struck by a dump truck.
Golic said quite honestly it instantly reminded him of when his fellow Philadelphia Eagle defensive lineman Jerome Brown was tragically killed (June 25, 1992, Brooksville, FL) in a car accident, dying at age 27.
Golic expressed as a teammate of Brown’s it is a devastating thing when you first hear it. “You simply don’t believe it, because it can’t be real,” explained Golic. He continued, “as an athlete, you have the feeling of invincibility, people think no way they are dead and gone but they are. Life throws some horrible crap at us.”
Florio said we normally only deal with this when people are elderly, but when a person is so young, it suddenly forces us to deal with death and there is no silver lining.
Florio talked about how tough it was for him when his parents both died in the 1990’s but that he could not imagine how much tougher it must be when it is your own child.
Golic quickly and very soberly echoed Florio, “Man, I could not fathom losing a child. Parents aren’t (normally) supposed to see this happen when your son or daughter goes before you. That is just so hard to wrap your head around. So, I don’t know how that feels. And that is why I feel the most for his parents…I can’t even think of the words to say in my thoughts to them. That is the part as a parent losing a child that is numbing to me.”
A video clip of Haskins as an 11-year old boy at Ohio State was shown on the program. Golic and Florio both spoke of how 14 years ago have gone by so quickly, and that because adults have experienced more in life, understand time better and how fast it moves from us.
That 11-year old boy did, in fact, become good enough to play at Ohio State. Good enough that coaches determined he was the better choice over Joe Burrow, leading Burrow to transfer the next year to LSU.
In 2017, Haskins learning behind starter J.T. Barrett, completed 40 of his 57 attempts (70.2%) for 565 yards, 4 touchdowns and one interception. Becoming the starter in 2018, Haskins completed 373 of 533 attempts (70.0%) for 4,831 yards, 50 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. He set multiple school and Big Ten records in the process.
Washington owner Daniel Snyder wanted Haskins badly enough that he overruled his coaching staff and scouts who evaluated the Ohio State quarterback lower on their draft board. Washington as a result drafted Haskins with the 15th overall selection in the 2019 NFL Draft.