Down at Dallas Cowboys training camp the reminder of May 1, 2009 was omnipresent.
Coaches yelled. Players grunted. Fans cheered. And, day after day, Rich Behm rolled. In his wheelchair.
Behm, the team's scouting assistant paralyzed when the Valley Ranch indoor practice facility collapsed in a storm, has settled a couple of lawsuits - including two against companies owned by Jerry Jones - for a whopping $25 million. He sued the manufacturer of the facility and won $19.5 million. And he sued two of Jones' companies that owned the facility and the land and earned another $5 million in cash and benefits. (Cowboys special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, who suffered neck and back injuries that prevented him from sleeping in a bed for more than a year, settled for a combined $10 million).
Of course money will never - there's always hope - let Behm walk or run or horse around with his children.
But it is nice to know a tragedy like this doesn't just get swept under the rug without financial compensation and, hopefully, changes in the way similar structures are built and maintained.
