We didn’t do anything on this story when it happened, frankly because all of the fugazi discourse surrounding it was pathetic. Grant Wahl, a well-known soccer writer, collapsed in the press box during Friday’s Argentina/Netherlands World Cup game in Qatar and was later pronounced dead.

An update now from Wahl’s brother, Eric:

The reason this was such a mess is because people were just throwing all kinds of shit at the wall, Eric included, who went on social media and said that he believed Wahl was murdered because he had been outwardly critical of the Qatari regime for their treatment of migrant workers before and during the World Cup. Wahl was briefly barred from entering a stadium over there because he wore a shirt that had a rainbow LGBTQ flag on it, so that was one of the conspiracy theories floating around out there, that the Qataris killed him in retaliation.

Then you had a bunch of people come out saying the guy died because of the COVID vaccine, which they also had no proof of and probably will not have proof of, contributing to the irresponsible nature of the situation. What little we do know is that Wahl said on his podcast that he had not been feeling well and saw doctors over there, who thought he may have bronchitis. He admitted that he was worn out and that his body was telling him to slow down.

Sadly, none of this matters, because people will jump to their own conclusions, if they already have not. The people who think he was murdered will continue to think he was murdered. The people who think he died because of the vaccine will continue to think that. Meantime, people will dispute whatever the autopsy says because Wahl died overseas, despite reports that U.S. consular officials had custody of his body in Doha. If further study reveals something informative, skeptics will just throw their hands in the air and call it fake news.

Wahl was a big proponent of American soccer and did a lot of fantastic college basketball work for Sports Illustrated back in the day. He had just turned 49 years old. RIP.