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American Morning

Fans, Players Mourn Death of Minnesota Viking Korey Stringer

Aired August 02, 2001 - 11:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a difficult day for the Minnesota Vikings. Players are resuming practice following the death of teammate and Pro Bowl tackle Korey Stringer.

Reporter Dave Hansen of CNN affiliate KMSP is going to join us live from Minnesota with the details on this one -- Dave.

DAVE HANSEN, KMSP CORRESPONDENT: Very somber fans, some very somber players here this morning. Want to show you some of the fans. Over here we have benches and benches full over here and I asked one of the folks who has actually been here to practice before and I asked him, is this an even greater number than you would normally see? And he said this is a lot more, maybe hundreds more than you would normally see.

And I want to show you how they basically turned this wall out here outside this practice facility into a makeshift memorial for Korey Stringer. This is his number, number 77. "Forever In Our Hearts," that is one of the messages. And, of course, you can see the bouquets of flowers and somebody actually went to the trouble of taking these images right here and creating this on their computer. That is something else.

And look right here. "Korey, you will always be in our hearts and your family will be in our prayers. You will never be forgotten. You will always be a Viking." Just an example of the folks that Korey Stringer actually touched, and you can see this community group right over here. Korey liked to work with community groups, especially illiteracy programs, and you can see this right here. Everybody is basically dressed up in Vikings regalia here.

I want to show you some videotape right now. It was shot about an hour ago as the Vikings players actually walked right in and got ready for practice here. You can see some of the members of the receivers unit walking in. Jay Greed (ph) is the first guy through and then you'll see a guy, number 84. that is Randy Moss. But really number 77 is what matters. This is the first practice since offensive tackle Korey Stringer died early yesterday of complications from heat stroke.

Several fans want to pump up the team and let them know how much they really do matter. Some are wearing buttons with 77 on them or 77 on their shirts and they say they want to pay homage. And some actually told me they have never come to a Vikings practice session but they thought it was very important to actually do that now.

And behind me here you can see what appears to be the combined offensive and defensive units. They have finally stopped practicing separately and they have kind of come across the team here and they are together. We're expecting this practice session to go until at least around 11:30 this morning.

As far as additional things for Korey Stringer, we are told that tentatively there is going to be a memorial service tomorrow afternoon in the Twin Cities and it is expected that Korey Stringer will be laid to rest in his Ohio hometown some time on Monday -- Leon.

HARRIS: Dave Hansen of KMSP, we thank you very much for that report.

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