Descriptive coding
| Variable | Coding options/rules | N (%) |
| News source | Associated Press | 175 (70) |
| New York Times | 37 (15) | |
| Philadelphia Inquirer | 38 (15) | |
| Single injury event | ||
| Is there a distinct injury event being discussed? | Yes | 220 (88) |
| Code ‘No’ if the story is more thematic | No | 30 (12) |
| Freak accident focus | ||
| Is the majority of the story focused on the freak accident event OR do the headline and story lead focus on the injury? | Yes | 140 (56) |
| No | 110 (44) | |
| Use of term | ||
| Who is employing the term ‘freak accident’ (in quotes/attributed)? | Journalist/person writing article | 102 (41) |
| Injured person | 47 (19) | |
| Coach | 18 (7) | |
| Team mate | 12 (5) | |
| Family member of the injured person | 12 (5) | |
| Owner | 11 (5) | |
| Spokesperson (agency, team, etc) | 11 (5) | |
| Other | 6 (3) | |
| Medical treatment | Yes (write in who provided treatment if mentioned) | 122 (55) |
| No or not clear or not indicated/not discussed | 98 (45) | |
| Age of injured person | Yes: injured person is ≤17 years (use for high school players) | 21 (9.5) |
| No: injured person ≥18 years (use for college players or professional athletes) | ||
| Injured person appears to be an adult but no age is provided | ||
| Not clear or not indicated | ||
| Injury happened in or around a home? | Yes | 24 (11) |
| No | ||
| Not indicated | ||
| Injured person a professional? | Yes (including Olympic athletes) | 134 (61) |
| No | ||
| Not clear/indicated | ||
| Circumstances of injury event? Only coded for subset where injured person is a professional athlete. | During competition | 54 (40) |
| During practice | 32 (34) | |
| Not during sports activity | 29 (21) | |
| Not clear or not indicated | 19 (14) | |
| Prevention content | Open coding then recoded (see table 2): | |
| Yes | ||
| No | ||
| Ambiguous (either unspecific talk of prevention or extensive discussion of cause) | ||
| Phenomenological consideration of ‘freak accident’ | ||
| How do people account for when things go wrong or explain why it happened? Why is someone using the term ‘freak accident’? | Open coding then recoded (see table 3) | |