Boy run over by athlete is doing tour of TV shows

CSU wide receiver reached for pass, mowed down kid

Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 25, 2007 at midnight

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This morning, 4-year-old Caden Thomas will get his 15 minutes of fame — and then some.

First stop: The Early Show on CBS. Then a limousine ride to the Today show on NBC. Then MSNBC, Fox News and Inside Edition and maybe even somewhere else.

All because little Caden had the bad fortune to get run over by a 5-foot-11, 177-pound Colorado State wide receiver at Saturday's spring game in Fort Collins — and the good fortune to come away with a nasty scar but no debilitating injuries.

"He's a normal little 4-year-old right now," his father, Dr. -Michael Thomas, of Fort Collins, said Tuesday afternoon as they prepared to board a flight to New York.

Caden's big adventure started Saturday afternoon at Hughes Stadium during the annual spring football game, a laid-back, intrasquad affair to begin building excitement for next season. Thomas, a podiatric surgeon, and his wife, Holly, were at the game with their six children: Kristi, 18; Caleb, 17; Colby, 12; Kiana, 10; Caden, 4; and Connor, 2. During the game, families were invited to watch from the sidelines.

That's where they were when CSU receiver George Hill stretched out for a touchdown catch in the end zone and promptly mowed down Caden as his momentum carried him out of bounds.

"There was a sobering thought immediately," Thomas said. "I had the gut feeling my son was hit, and a millisecond later the sickening scream confirmed my worst fears."

Members of the CSU sports medicine team and a physician at the field attended to him immediately, and he was rushed to the hospital.

That was around 1:30 Saturday afternoon. Around 8 that night, after Caden passed a battery of tests — including properly spelling his name and the word toot repeatedly — he was allowed to go home. A plastic surgeon closed the gash across his forehead, but he had no serious problems — no neurological damage, no post-concussion syndrome, no nothing.

His parents checked on him every hour through the night, and CSU coach Sonny Lubick called a couple of times to see how he was doing.

That might have been the end of it but for one thing: A camera crew captured videotape of the collision, and it started playing, first locally, then nationally.

At 4 a.m. Tuesday, the phone at the family's Fort Collins home rang. It was CNN Headline News. During the next couple of hours, everyone else called, too, and by lunchtime the Thomases were headed to the airport.

"Just another day for the -Thomas family of Fort Collins," Caden's dad said just before boarding the plane.

And Caden's wardrobe for his moment in the spotlight? Green and gold, of course.

"He's going to be wearing a lot of CSU paraphernalia . . . to show his support for CSU," his father said.

In the meantime, CSU is already making plans to change things at next year's spring game.

"Obviously in light of this, we know in future spring games we will run the sidelines the same as we do during the regular season — and that is no one under 18 will be allowed on the field," said Gary Ozello, a CSU official. "We are very thankful that he was not seriously injured."

For Hill, there's been some notice, as well. He already has talked to ESPN Radio, to CNN and to Fox, and he's expected to appear with Caden this morning during his round of interviews — all paid for by the networks and strictly legal under NCAA rules, Ozello noted.

About the only place the big receiver and the little boy won't appear is The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

They just couldn't work it into the schedule.

vaughank@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5019

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