Purdue QB Aidan O’Connell playing with a broken heart.
O’Connell’s brother died a few days before the Boilermakers played Indiana last week. He went home to Illinois after the game Saturday to mourn with his family. He wasn’t at practice Monday—understandably.
My heart goes out to Aidan and his family. Losing a loved one is crushing especially so when they are young.
November 28th, 2022 at 6:34 PM ^
*Aidan. Mods, please correct the error.
November 28th, 2022 at 7:54 PM ^
Glad to make that correction for you.
November 28th, 2022 at 6:37 PM ^
Tragic. Best wishes to Aidan and his family. Hopefully the B1G, Purdue, and UM can do something nice to honor the young man's memory.
November 28th, 2022 at 6:39 PM ^
OMG. Horrible. Everything can change in a second.
November 28th, 2022 at 6:40 PM ^
Terrible thing for any family to go through. Heart goes out to the O'Connell family.
November 28th, 2022 at 6:41 PM ^
I lost my brother 5 years ago at the age of 44. You never get over it. My thoughts go out to him and his family.
November 28th, 2022 at 7:26 PM ^
I'm so sorry for your loss. May his memory be a blessing.
November 29th, 2022 at 7:54 AM ^
Lost one of mine last year at age 39. Huge Michigan fan, makes games bittersweet sometimes.
November 28th, 2022 at 6:47 PM ^
RIP. Condolences. That sucks.
November 28th, 2022 at 6:49 PM ^
Best wishes to him and his family
November 28th, 2022 at 6:50 PM ^
He’s a heckuva a player. I am really sorry for Aidan and his family.
There was a great ‘The Journey’ episode in B1G network about Aidan’s childhood friendship with Charlie Jones, (Chuck Sizzle) who came full circle after multiple transfers to play together at Purdue. Chuck Sizzle has turned into a star receiver after transferring from… Iowa. Brian Ferentz didn’t think he was good enough to play receiver there, so he was stuck returning punts. He returned multiple kicks for touchdowns at multiple schools. Brohm saw potential, and now he is a stud.
November 28th, 2022 at 7:10 PM ^
Brutal. God bless the young man and his family.
November 28th, 2022 at 7:13 PM ^
As a human, I feel for him. It royally sucks to lose a close one out of the blue as it sounds was the case. As a rabid Michigan fan, I will feel bad when Michigan destroys Purdue and breaks the collective hearts of the Purdue Boilermakers next Saturday.
November 28th, 2022 at 7:17 PM ^
This is so sad, and much bigger than football. Peace and Love to the family.
November 28th, 2022 at 7:20 PM ^
My sympathies to Aidan. I lost my brother and it feels like having your childhood ripped out.
November 28th, 2022 at 7:37 PM ^
I’m so sorry to hear about his loss hope he and his family find peace and that his brother rests in peace and that his memory be for a blessing.
November 28th, 2022 at 7:40 PM ^
This sucks to hear - I feel for Aidan and his family. When my sister died in 1989 I felt horrible. But the worst thing was having to watch my parents bury a child. My heart goes out to his parents...
November 28th, 2022 at 7:52 PM ^
My gosh. I don't wish that on anyone. Sincere best to him and his family. That's devastating.
November 28th, 2022 at 8:00 PM ^
That's awful. Poor kid.
November 28th, 2022 at 8:04 PM ^
I watched the end of Purdue/Indiana and was wondering why he was crying.
That's horrible. I'm sorry to hear this.
November 28th, 2022 at 8:13 PM ^
That's sad. Feel bad for him and his family
November 28th, 2022 at 8:41 PM ^
My daughter is friends with Aidan's youngest sister. Really tragic. Prayers to their family.
November 28th, 2022 at 8:57 PM ^
Clicking on this, I thought it would be some snarky joke. But then things got serious real quick. In a vanishingly small probability event that O'Connell might go deep into a random thread on an opponent team's blog, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for his loss.
November 28th, 2022 at 9:02 PM ^
Competition at this level is tough enough. Much harder with this type of distraction and feelings invading your heart and mind.
Hope he can find peace and focus to play at his best, and support for him and his family.
November 28th, 2022 at 9:21 PM ^
Eesh. I still want Michigan to win, but if they sack him I hope it's, uh, relatively gentle.
I dunno, I'm bad at this stuff. These kinds of events put things into perspective.
November 28th, 2022 at 11:27 PM ^
Awful. I hope he can play and make his brother and family proud.