High School Football Player Seriously Injured After Pulling His Coach's Pickup Truck During Training

Who thought this was a good idea?

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Last Wednesday, a 15-year-old high school football player from Warner Robins, Ga. named Marcus Watkins was participating in a training exercise with several of his teammates in preparation for a charity fire truck-pulling contest that they have coming up. The drill was simple: Grab a bunch of ropes and pull a pickup truck—with their coach inside—until the truck gets moving and the team is able to pull it for a set distance. However, the simple drill almost turned tragic. 

While pulling the truck, which was later identified as a Toyota Tundra, a bunch of the football players got tired, dropped their ropes, and moved out of the way. However, Watkins and another one of his teammates were able to keep pulling and, eventually, they got the truck moving. But at some point, both of them exerted all of their energy and fell to the ground in exhaustion. And obviously, that was not good, because the truck continued rolling towards them and then rolled right over them. Watkins was reportedly pinned underneath one of the truck's back tires and had to be helped out from underneath the truck by his teammates.

Crazy, right? But if you can believe it, that isn't even the most shocking part of all of this. The most shocking part is that, after the accident, Houston County High School officials and coaches didn't call an ambulance. They also refused to acknowledge that Watkins had been run over. So even though Watkins lost "chunks of skin" and suffered "severe road rash," according to a police report, his school has more or less written off his injuries and refused to take any responsibility for them.

Watch the video above to hear some of the school's officials talk about the accident. Something tells us that Watkins has a payday coming his way in the not-so-distant future after this near-tragedy.

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[via 13 WMAZ]

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