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D-II player Robert Grays dies after injuries suffered while making tackle

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Midwestern State football player Robert Grays died Tuesday after he was hospitalized for a neck injury sustained during the team’s game Saturday. He was 19.

Grays was injured making a tackle late in the fourth quarter of the team’s 35-13 victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville.

(via Midwestern State)
(via Midwestern State)

“[Wednesday] we mourn the loss of one of our own. Robert Grays died yesterday from critical injuries suffered in Saturday’s game,” MSU president Suzanne Shipley said in a statement. “I know you will join me in expressing the sincerest condolences of the MSU community to Robert’s family and friends. Please keep them in your thoughts in the coming days.

“Robert touched many lives while attending the university, but perhaps he will be remembered best for his smile. He was an inspiration on and off the field to those around him, and he will be remembered with love and affection by his friends, classmates, coaches and teammates.”

Grays was a cornerback for the Mustangs and played in all 11 games as a freshman in 2016. He had been transferred to a hospital in his native Houston following his injury.

“We both played last year as true freshmen and we always told each other we were going to make it,” teammate Bryce Martinez told the Wichita Falls Times-Record News before Grays’ death. “And we still are. The other night when I went to go see him, he wasn’t looking too good, but then I looked at him and it just felt like he’s going to make it, I just saw it. People think it’s going to take a miracle … Rob is a miracle and the things he would do are miraculous. He’s the strongest dude I know, the smallest dude I know and the biggest heart I know.”

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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