# Dale Earnhardt - the next Elvis? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 20, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130 "2002-10-20T20:17:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/21 "2002-10-22T16:13:28Z")
I don’t know what you mean by that, Spoke. I am not a racing fan. The only reason I’m familiar with Earnhardt is because I live in an area where hearing about him is fairly inescapable. I don’t think anyone is blasphemous here. I just saw your note that he never fed the poor, and so I checked. It turns out that he was a very charitable man. I saw RickJay’s note about the accident, and so I checked. It turns out that there is not a more common cause of death among athletes. Do you think I should have kept the facts to myself? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/22 "2002-10-22T16:14:33Z")
_What?!_ You want a website for the charity? [Here.](http://www.google.com) Damnation. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/23 "2002-10-22T16:24:07Z")
I think he was directing that at me **Lib** , and decided to toss out the lil’ green dude, rather than answer my question. Cool charity link BTW. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/24 "2002-10-22T16:38:19Z")
Clearly, Earnhardt worship is ripe for ironic treatment. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/25 "2002-10-22T16:46:02Z")
Spit wrote: > [@](#): > > Cool charity link BTW. Well, that’s how I found it! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/26 "2002-10-22T17:44:38Z")
[This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=64933&highlight=Earnhardt) deals with Earnhardt-mania and his actual charitable activities – please note the exchange between myself and **gobear** about halfway down for a little (undocumented) background on what Dale Earnhardt did. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/27 "2002-10-22T19:16:50Z")
On second thought, who needs irony when Dale worship has achieved _self_-parody? Just sit back and enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/28 "2002-10-22T20:42:36Z")
Sometimes, it is downright disturbing what people enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/29 "2002-10-23T03:42:43Z")
Libertarian said: [quote] Accidents are the most common cause of death among athletes.[/quote Yes, but in his particular sport, accidents are _expected_, so it would make sense to use available safety percautions, right? Nope, not for him. He was too macho. Now he’s too dead. I will say this, though – in his death he probably saved other lives, as there was a huge rush to get the HANS devices right after he was killed. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/30 "2002-10-23T06:43:18Z")
Just wanted to point out, the prevailing opinion is that the HANS device would _not_ have saved Dale’s life if he were wearing it. When you smash head-on into a concrete wall at 200 mph, your internal organs tend to get all smooshed to jelly. All the safety gear in the world can’t prevent that. Styrofoam walls, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/31 "2002-10-23T08:15:00Z")
Anyone remember when Kurt Cobain died that there were a few copycat suicides among his fans? How about when Selena was murdered and you couldn’t swing a dead cat in Texas without hitting a vehicle with Selena’s name written on the window? And of course the King, Elvis the Pelvis, who rules all when it comes to dead hero worship. None of these people really offered more to humanity in general then Dale did. Yet we still had examples of people who took it way to seriously. Maybe we get attached to entertainers and when they die we feel the pain of our own mortality. Nah, that couldn’t be it. Marc ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130/32 "2002-10-23T23:07:55Z")
KGS said: > [@](#): > > Just wanted to point out, the prevailing opinion is that the HANS device would _not_ have saved Dale’s life if he were wearing it. The prevailing opinion among whom? NASCAR has certainly tried to put that forth as an official line. But all the independent analysis I read about said otherwise. > [@](#): > > When you smash head-on into a concrete wall at 200 mph, your internal organs tend to get all smooshed to jelly. But that’s not what happened to him. His internal organs were pretty much fine (or at least not fatally damaged). It was his skull and spine that took the beating. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhardt-the-next-elvis/133130.md?page=1)