NLL Insider

Tom Borrelli and Darris Kilgour at the NLL's 2007 Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

It is with unbelievable sadness that NLL Insider reports that lacrosse journalist and Buffalo News sports reporter Tom Borrelli passed away early Thursday morning due to complications from injuries sustained after falling down a set of stairs at a Buffalo stadium earlier this month.

The Buffalo News reports that Borrelli passed at 5:30AM this morning at Eric County Medical Center, where he’d been since sustaining the now fatal injuries.

On November 8th, while covering a high school football game at Robert Rich All High Stadium, Borrelli fell down a series of approximately twelve steps, striking his head repeatedly to the point that onlookers couldn’t even recognize the highly respected journalist, due to the massive bruising and swelling that occurred on the scene.

The 51-year-old Borrelli remained in critical condition over the last almost two weeks, while family held out hope that his condition would improve once swelling subsided. Borrelli was paralyzed from the neck down, but earlier this week was communicating verbally with family and medical staff, with talk of potentially even starting some occupational and physical therapy sometime next week.

Unfortunately, Borrelli’s condition worsened over the past few days, experiencing several serious setbacks prior to his passing this morning.

Since Borrelli’s accident, there have been a flurry of reports from local media in regards to the unsafe conditions of the stadium’s press area.

Survivors include Borrelli’s wife, Karen, a Buffalo News sports department employee; his father, George J. Borrelli, a retired News political reporter; and one brother, Dr. George W.

Borrelli is the first sportswriter to be recognized by the NLL Hall of Fame. The league’s writer of the year award, the Tom Borrelli Award, was named in his honor in 2005.

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