RIP: Grant Wahl
Soccer reporter Grant Wahl mysteriously dropped dead at the end of the Argentina match today. He was one of the most well known and respected US soccer reporters.
I apparently he was in great health and this came out of nowhere. He also wrote an article last night critical of the treatment of the immigrant labor force helping to put in the world cup.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:23 PM ^
RIP. I hope that is just some terrible coincidence.
December 10th, 2022 at 12:20 AM ^
This ESPN article goes out of its way to say that Grant was absolutely NOT in great health!
https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/35221443/american-soccer-journalist-grant-wahl-dies-49-qatar
TL;DR: He had a really big health scare recently while in Qatar covering the World Cup and had to go to the hospital. Grant stated himself that for 3 weeks he's had little sleep, high stress, and a heavy workload while covering the event. He was still in pretty bad shape after going to the hospital but felt that he was recovering (his words, not mine). I didn't read the USA Today piece that OP posted above, but if they neglected to mention any of this its pretty poor journalism to leave out that information and allow harmful speculation.
Edit: Just read the article and it did indeed state that he had health problems and a high workload. It also used the same quote that ESPN used. The journalist did their due diligence, thankfully. No need to speculate foul play.
December 10th, 2022 at 1:03 AM ^
This is just my 2 cents on what could have “medically” occurred rather than suspecting foul play with a paralipsis.
I know he had a viral illness that apparently wasn’t COVID, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually COVID just outside the positive test range resulting in possible saddle pulmonary embolism, which could lead to him suddenly collapsing.
COVID does make one hyper-coagulable and prone to clotting regardless of age.
December 10th, 2022 at 6:36 AM ^
MERS-CoV as a example of one of many local infectious agents that could be the culprit, certainly more plausible than "murder" nonsense from a guy complaining of severe cough and feeling "no bueno" days beforehand.
December 10th, 2022 at 7:15 AM ^
Or maybe her had bad vessels and couldn't take the cortisol. Or maybe he did have some viral myocarditis. Clovid isn't the only virus that kills people. I had a patient in her low 40s, healthy, go on a cruise to SA, come back, and die of viral myocarditis
December 10th, 2022 at 9:15 AM ^
That was exactly what I was thinking. A massive PE could cause this. While I think it’s impt to rule out “other” causes for peace of mind and closure, he mentioned his health being an issue multiple times. (I follow him on Twitter and he didn’t seem like he was doing very well there)
December 10th, 2022 at 9:43 AM ^
Agree on the PE. International travel, pulmonary symptoms, etc. Unlikely they did a CT Pulmonary angio if all that crossed their minds was bronchitis.
December 10th, 2022 at 5:39 PM ^
So do the jabs. Have you seen the nightcrawler sized clots being flushed onto the embalming tables these days?
SADS - Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. Gotta call it something.
December 10th, 2022 at 8:30 AM ^
I am not going to assume foul play quite yet but by this account as well as others it sounds like he had a cold that grew into bronchitis (based on medical analysis) and he was on medical-grade cough syrup and ibuprofen per two articles. He also got a bunch of sleep and apparently felt better.
He said a lot of people weren't feeling great in the media that were covering the event so combined with stress I'm sure he wasn't feeling his best. But at the same time there's no report that he has some chronic condition, some underlying health issues that was exacerbated by what is, in the end, a not-uncommon illness like bronchitis. He may well have had an unexpected reaction to medication, stress, whatever and that caused his death.
But he wasn't some 75-year-old diabetic man with hypertension and a series of heart issues. This is unexpected and given the context around Qatar and his time there my guess is there will be a push to perform an autopsy by a non-Qatar associated medical professional soon.
December 10th, 2022 at 9:48 AM ^
I don’t want to go all conspiracy either, but he wrote this two days ago and directly called out the CEO of the Supreme Committee by name
“We know the Qatari Supreme Committee doesn’t care because its CEO, Nasser Al-Khater, told you all you needed to hear in an interview with the BBC that was breathtaking in its crassness.
“”We’re in the middle of a World Cup, and we have a successful World Cup. And this is something that you want to talk about right now?”” Al-Khater said when asked about the worker’s death. “”I mean, death is a natural part of life, whether it’s at work, whether it’s in your sleep. Of course, a worker died. Our condolences go to his family. However, it’s strange that this is something that you wanted to focus on as your first question.””
He actually said that. But Al-Khater didn’t stop there. “
https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-25
His post stops there as if he is going to say more. He posts every day and that was his last post.
Yes, he is young and in excellent health. Yes, he was recovering from a respiratory illness and stress from a week ago. Yes, there have been other articles on Qatar’s treatment of workers.
But no one has directly called out the CEO.
No wonder his brother thinks he was murdered.
It seems there are plausible reasons for him to suddenly drop dead after recovering from a respiratory illness. Bone chilling nonetheless.
If anyone subscribes to his blog, I wonder what the comments say.
Grant Wahl - A wonderful and brave sports writer. Rest In Peace
December 10th, 2022 at 1:38 AM ^
It better be a terrible coincidence. If it's not, we have a major international incident here.
RIP to Wahl, he was a good writer. I'm a novice as regards understanding soccer, but I did enjoy his work.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:23 PM ^
He was murdered. And it will be covered up.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:30 PM ^
Since you know a bit about how this works can we put you in the case? I'll remind you that QATAR competes with you in the oil market.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:33 PM ^
you give the order or did the royal family borrow an asset?
All kidding aside, shocking and sad news to say the least. The ESPN story noted he had been diagnosed with bronchitis earlier this week and was taking antibiotics and "cough syrup" - seems pretty suspicious to go from that to dropping dead in a few days.
State Dept should get that body home asap and perform an autopsy. As another poster noted, Grant was not pulling punches when writing about the labor situation over there and he also ruffled feathers wearing some rainbow gear earlier in the tournament.
December 10th, 2022 at 6:37 AM ^
Utter nonsense.
Infectious cause.
Many possible candidates, frex:
December 9th, 2022 at 10:27 PM ^
Awful news.
Not necessarily malevolence at work… but VERY suspicious. He was the pre-eminent soccer writer in the US and he didn’t let the hostile environment keep him from poking at problems.
This is pretty shocking.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:52 PM ^
If you ever teach a seminar called, "straight shooter, respected on both sides" I'm in.
December 10th, 2022 at 11:36 AM ^
Uhh, no. Your post completely left out his notable health issues. Shame on you.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:28 PM ^
This is terribly sad. My goodness. So many thoughts like many others probably have. To be his wife or family must be devastating.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:31 PM ^
He also wrote an article last night critical of the treatment of the immigrant labor force helping to put in the world cup.
I mean, that's not convenient at all or anything!
December 9th, 2022 at 11:57 PM ^
True that. After that article was written, the Qatari authorities must have gone back in time at least a week and infected him with some microbe that triggered his ill health starting Dec. 3rd as he began noting symptoms no later than that day, and then escalated the illness manually until his treatment the hospital which was actually a fine-tuned toxic antibiotic that initially helped his symptoms before the slow-release poison took hold just in time for the end of the quarterfinal match this afternoon.
December 10th, 2022 at 8:36 AM ^
And making sure that article would get 10x the attention must be some kind of 4D Chess tactic.
December 10th, 2022 at 9:56 AM ^
I'd like to talk to you about the movie rights. I'll have my people set up a meet with your people. We can get a little crazy, possibly have subs.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:33 PM ^
December 9th, 2022 at 10:51 PM ^
Just saw this too. This is crazy. Can't imagine what their family is going through
For those who don't know, Grant Wahl wore a rainbow shirt to a game and was told it wasn't allowed and apparently received death threats for it
edit: check out his blog post from yesterday:
World Cup Daily, Day 25
They just don't care. Qatari World Cup organizers don't even hide their apathy over migrant worker deaths, including the most recent one.
December 9th, 2022 at 11:03 PM ^
This was a free article: An Unexpected Detention by World Cup Security
December 10th, 2022 at 8:00 AM ^
That’s a dumb move, wearing a rainbow shirt in Qatar. That’s how you wind up in prison in a foreign country, or dead. American law doesn’t follow you around. You do not have freedom of speech.
December 10th, 2022 at 9:09 AM ^
I'm going to agree with you here. Yeah, sure it's great to express your beliefs, but have some common sense doing it. Any magistrate with a hair in his ass can manufacture a charge to put you in a local jail. And then you're truly fucked. The State Dept doesn't have a team of operatives sitting around waiting to bust you out...
December 10th, 2022 at 9:39 AM ^
Well, unless you play basketball.
December 10th, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
True. But arresting a well known reporter would have been a major incident. Anyone else might still be still in jail. So he knew he was untouchable.
He did it for his gay brother by the way.
Now wearing a rainbow shirt is a “dumb move”. What about calling out by name the CEO of the Supreme Committee for worker abuse publicly on line. That goes 100X farther then a shirt. They can’t put him in jail for that either. I bet that was the first time that guy ever experienced criticism before in his life. What the hell was the reporter thinking. Brave soul
December 10th, 2022 at 11:20 AM ^
Asshole having the courage of his convictions and a moral compass. What a dick he must be.
December 11th, 2022 at 2:59 AM ^
OMG you are spot on here! Nobody knew about the many migrants that died building the world cup stadium until Grant broke the news on his blog post a few days ago. I bet you people are furious to find this out and will probably boycott the tournament now. Can you imagine the shame the Qataris must feel now that this is out in the open?
December 10th, 2022 at 11:58 AM ^
Why don’t you sit this one out because you don’t know anything that you’re talking about. FIFA specifically said that this type of behavior would be OK only for the Qatari government to reverse course the day before the tournament. You can’t have a worldwide tournament. Invite everyone in the world to participate and then have hate tolerated.
December 10th, 2022 at 12:06 PM ^
Sure you can. They just did.
December 10th, 2022 at 12:36 PM ^
Seriously. Like those slaves who tried to escape from the South before the Civil War. There were specific laws against that -- didn't they know that? What a dumb move.
Same with that Buddhist monk who set himself on fire in Vietnam. There are consequences to that -- didn't he know that?
(Dude, some brave souls feel that speaking up or taking action despite laws -- or even specifically to protest said laws -- is worth the risk. I applaud them).
December 10th, 2022 at 5:33 PM ^
You're disgusting and know absolutely nothing about this WC. How it was awarded. Or the promises Qatar broke to sportswash.
You're disgusting!
December 9th, 2022 at 10:36 PM ^
RIP.
Holy shit, what a shock. I listened to his podcast, Fútbol with Grant Wahl, read many of his articles when he was with SI.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:43 PM ^
The ESPN article indicated that Monday Wahl wrote that he had gone to the hospital because he was feeling very ill. https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/35221443/american-soccer-journalist-grant-wahl-dies-48-qatar
After the article he wrote yesterday, about the Qatari leadership not caring about migrant worker's deaths, I would not be surprised if there is foul play involved. I hope the US government can quickly procure his body to do an autopsy because I think it's important that people know the truth about his death no matter the cause
December 9th, 2022 at 11:01 PM ^
i recall a guardian article 1-2 years ago re dead laborers, mostly indians, due to rough conditions and accidents while building all the hotels, fields, etc. its not like hes the first to ask questions - though questions clearly needed to be asked.
certainly possible shady shit occurred, also possible he got sick or something. hope his family finds out either way. sad stuff
December 10th, 2022 at 3:59 AM ^
Probably Pete Pattison for the Guardian. He’s been writing about these problems as Qatar was building for the World Cup. Listened to him recently on The Lead by Wondery, a thrice weekly podcast on sports related news.
here’s a link to the podcast on Castbox
https://castbox.fm/vd/546705212
December 10th, 2022 at 7:36 AM ^
Last Week Tonight also reported on workers' conditions:
December 9th, 2022 at 10:43 PM ^
He just said in a podcast (yesterday or two days ago, unsure with the time difference) that he was ill (he called in bronchitis) and run down from the lack of sleep and travel, FWIW ...
https://twitter.com/DannyWArmstrong/status/1601419959543861248?t=Q6wztdDA9yrewOzPy4YN3Q&s=19
December 9th, 2022 at 10:48 PM ^
I always die when I'm run down. I don't know about you though.
December 9th, 2022 at 11:24 PM ^
Just letting people know additional information that's available.
December 9th, 2022 at 11:29 PM ^
If you want to provide additional info why don't you tell us how often a healthy person dying of a respiratory infection is common. What's the death rate?
December 9th, 2022 at 11:51 PM ^
You, uh... may need to take a lap. You're not coming off well in this thread. You good, bud?
December 10th, 2022 at 9:42 AM ^
This is always how this guy acts.
December 10th, 2022 at 6:56 AM ^
Someone hasn't been paying attention these past two years.
Heck Middle East Sars alone has a 30% mortality rate. Not saying that's what killed him, but severe infection is a heck of a lot more plausible than your dismissiveness indicates.
December 10th, 2022 at 1:11 PM ^
why don't you tell us how often a healthy person dying of a respiratory infection is common. What's the death rate?
Ok, well, it took me 10 seconds on google to find this
Acute respiratory infections (ARIs), a disease group that includes pneumonia, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), are responsible for 4.25 million deaths each year, according to the first-ever Acute Respiratory Infections Atlas (ARIAtlas.org), published today by World Lung Foundation. ARIs are the third largest cause of mortality in the world and the top killer in low- and middle-income countries.
so … pretty common