15 college football players whose careers ended too soon

This was one of the more interesting situations that led a player to retire from the sport far too early. Stanley Doughty was considered one of the top defensive linemen in college football before suffering a spinal injury during his final season with the school which ended up keeping him from the NFL as well.

Basically, Doughty suffered a spinal injury and the South Carolina training staff told him to play through it because it was just “a stinger.” Everyone who has played football knows what that feels like and it’s not comfortable, but Doughty’s injury seemed to go even further than that.

To this day, he claims that every time he tilts his head back, he feels tingling through his deltoids and chest. He is suing South Carolina, and the NCAA, for neglecting to adequately treat him following his injury and telling him to play through it.

According to Doughty, who played from 2004-06 with South Carolina, he was signed by the Chiefs before he even graduated, but their training staff said that he wasn’t going to be cleared to play. He missed out on an NFL career and was forced to shut things down far too soon.