'There's just no words': Linden football honors late teammate with emotional win

LINDEN – It was a beautiful first autumn Saturday, just perfect for a football game. Blue sky, not too hot, not too cold – perfect.

Then you noticed the American flag at half-staff next to the field house and a makeshift memorial a couple first downs away from the entrance against a fence.

Roses, candles, pictures of a smiling teenager, balloons dangling in the wind, one carrying the words “We miss you.” A blue No. 16 stood at the base, embedded in the grass. Passersby paused to quietly take it in, lowering their heads.

Linden sophomore Xavier McClain died Wednesday night following an apparent head injury that he sustained in a game Sept 9. He wore No. 16 and was 16 years old.

How could something like that happen?

“There’s just no words,” Linden head coach Al Chiola said following his team’s 13-0 win over Perth Amboy. “There’s no words to say to the team, to anybody. There’s no words. I don’t have any words. I come home, I see my children, I hug them a little longer. I hug these guys a little longer. I hug our coaches longer.

“It’s tough and we talked all week just about trying to fight through this and play the game right. The right way. Play hard the way Xavier would have wanted us to and that’s what we tried to do. That’s the only way we can honor him right now.”

Outpouring of condolences

It’s like everybody needed a group hug. The McClains, mom Lisa and dad Norman, and the Linden Tigers have received condolences and best wishes from rival teams to touched parents everywhere to New York Jets coach Robert Saleh.

“The outpouring of support has been great for our program and these kids because they need it,” Chiola said.

Linden Mayor Derek Armstead and his wife Danie are friends with the McClains, and their children played youth sports with Xavier.

“The Linden community, the football community – we rally behind the family because of these events,” Armstead said in the first quarter of Saturday’s game. “It’s just what we do when things like this happen. You know, I have to say, sometimes when things are at the absolute worst, we as human beings can be at our absolute best. And that’s the way it should be. … It’s just been a total outpouring and showing of love and support for the family.”

It’s still hard to comprehend the tragedy and then balance it with the normalcy of everyday life. Saturday had a strange dichotomy. After a subdued moment of silence, the game and fanfare went on as any other game.

Spectators filled the bleachers. Cheerleaders chanted. The soft serve ice cream truck across the street had a long line at halftime.

Players still relished in making big tackles. There was even an unnerving injury timeout, in which a Perth Amboy player laid on his back for several moments before getting up. Chiola walked over and looked on, gently placing his hand on a shoulder, letting him know, in essence, all of Linden was there for him.

Chiola’s a near-lifelong football guy and his sons play at Colonia High School, so he’s aware of the risks and rewards. With injuries, Chiola said, you simply hope the player gets up. Still, to have someone pass away?

'You never think something like that is going to happen'

It’s rare. In 2021, the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research reported there were “four traumatic injury (direct) fatalities that occurred among football players during football-related activities” in its annual survey of football injury research. Additionally, all four were in high school football and had traumatic brain injuries.

“We have kids at home that play football and we all know it’s a violent sport, but you never think something like that is going to happen,” Chiola said. “You just don’t. It’s terrible.”