Aaron Douglas Died Of Accidental Drug Overdose, According To Medical Examiner

Words, as ever, do absolutely no justice to this manner of story. Knoxville football fans had watched Douglas wreck shop on opposing defenders since his days as a Maryville High School bruiser, and now neither they nor his new base in Tuscaloosa will ever get to cheer him again. Douglas had risen to the second-team ranks with the Crimson Tide by this year’s A-Day game, following offseason foot surgery, and no amount of repetitions of “terrible” or “senseless” can begin to describe how cosmically wrong it is that he’ll never again don pads and cleats and take the field on a cool fall Saturday. Our sincerest condolences to his family and to both the Tennessee and Alabama football communities.

According to the report, Douglas made his way to a party at an address that seems to correspond with a house in a neighborhood. He was reportedly discovered motionless on a balcony after last being seen around 2 am:

ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports, gave its worldwide audience a quick and dirty object lesson in social media and crisis mismanagement Thursday afternoon, with coverage of the death of Aaron Douglas that you might find objectionable if you’ve got, say, a pulse:

The WWL wasn’t quite fast enough with the vaudeville hook. Every major news outlet is subject to instant feedback and international scrutiny on this vast, nigh-unnavigable frontier of new media, and when you’re as big as the Mouse and its subsidiaries, the jokes start fast and spread faster. When they did get out in front of it, they did it frankly and directly -- ESPN’s editor-in-chief himself apologized via the same social media waves that brought down the post in the first place -- but what I can’t figure out is what a grab like that was doing on Insider in the first place. Post author Albert Lin was so immeasurably out of line here that he managed to anger Alabama fans talking about their own depth chart. Why even go there? Ever? It’s a brave new world out here in God’s green internet, but they’re still ESPN. It’s not like they’re hurting for pageviews.

Douglas is also being remembered fondly by former and current teammates (and a certain former head coach) of both schools. Here’s Erik Ainge, who left for the Jets just as Douglas was entering the program:

Inky Johnson, also a former Tennessee player, served as a defensive assistant during Douglas’ one season as a starter with the Vols:

Cause of death still isn’t known. Police in Jacksonville also told the site they plan to release a press release soon on the story, but would not confirm the news.

As Douglas was a part of two SEC football communities, news, reactions and reports are going to start coming out from all over. College football fans are talking about Douglas’ passing at Rocky Top Talk, Roll Bama Roll and Every Day Should Be Saturday.

A hometown boy from powerhouse Maryville High School (just across town from Neyland Stadium), Douglas had an impeccable Tennessee pedigree as the son of a Vols offensive lineman and Lady Vols basketball player. He redshirted his first year at UT in 2008, moving from tight end to lineman before working his way up to starting right tackle in 2009, where he earned Freshman All-America honors.

Douglas left the Vols in 2010, after the team’s second consecutive coaching change, citing a diagnosis of depression, and played for a year at Arizona Western Community College in Yuma. Rated a four-star Rivals prospect, he signed with Alabama in November 2010, and promptly got himself arrested for DUI back in his hometown. He remained on the roster for the Crimson Tide, however, and was last seen on the field scrimmaging with the second team in the 2011 A-Day game while recovering from foot surgery.