An experienced skydiver died as spectators watched in horror Friday when his stunt before the kickoff of a Tennessee high school football game went tragically awry.

Richard Sheffield, 55, was part of a team of professional skydiving performers who jumped out of a plane before the “Musket Bowl,” an annual rivalry between David Crockett and Daniel Boone high schools in eastern Tennessee. Horrified onlookers witnessed Sheffield plunging to the ground behind the stadium. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“The deceased was a highly experienced jumper with decades of experience to their credit and a well-respected member of the skydiving community,” Jump TN, the Greenville-based skydiving team to which Sheffield belonged, said in a statement to USA Today. “The entire skydiving community is saddened by the sudden loss of a wonderful member of their community.”

Sheffield had completed more than 1,500 jumps, the group said. His parachute did open but apparently malfunctioned as he attempted a stunt leading. Witnesses said Sheffield hit the ground at an unsafe speed.

Horrifying moment skydiver, 55, crashes to earth and dies while attempting stunt during high school football pre-game show in Tennessee
💔 https://t.co/WTTO3x3rBB

— IntoTheMystic (@Mystic_Sailor) October 23, 2022

Home team Crockett has had the skydiving team perform pre-game shows in the past, and Friday night’s game was both Senior Night and the opening of a new field.

“Since it was David Crockett’s new field, it was their first game, [the] first Musket Bowl on their new field,” Daniel Boone sophomore Tyler Smith told WJHL. “So, I guess they were trying to celebrate it.”

The game went on as planned, with Boone winning 35-7 in the 52nd annual clash between the teams. But afterward, the community and Sheffield’s family shared their grief on social media.

“Today just doesn’t feel real, and the hardest day of my life,” Sheffield’s son Stacey wrote on Facebook. “Yesterday we lost one of the most important people in our lives, my Dad. I’m so thankful for the relationship we had. We talked every single day, multiple times a day.”

Stacey, who has a twin brother named Casey, said the boys enjoyed skydiving with their father and began at the tender age of 7.

“Being able to skydive with your Dad is another level of cool,” he wrote. “One thing Dad loved the most was going fast, and that’s how he went out.”

“Until we fly again, Dad. I love you. Blue Skies,” the heartbroken son wrote.

On "The View" Thursday, White House correspondent April Ryan advised young journalists to not make themselves the focus of their reporting. "Please understand it’s not about you. It’s about the story," she told the audience.

However, in Ryan's new book, she seemed to relish making herself part of the story.

In her book, "Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem," Ryan touted how her fight to preserve "democracy" and "the vote" from Donald Trump and his allies, "made her a target." 

At one point, she even embraced her role as an activist.

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"Our activism is rooted in serving the underserved, the forgotten, the marginalized. I used to push against the description of my work as ‘activism’ because that adjective was lobbied to delegitimize my work. But in time, I have come to accept and embrace the description," Ryan wrote. She quotes The New York Times' 1619 Project's Nikole Hannah-Jones saying "all journalism is activism."

"For Black journalists, especially Black women, her words are gospel," Ryan wrote. "Hannah-Jones is right — all journalism is activism and what matters most is the cause for which you are an activist. Ultimately, for whom do you fight?" she asked.

The White House reporter frequently attracted headlines during the Trump years for her hostile interactions in the press briefing room.

In her book, she recalled these events as "devastating" and "traumatic" "microaggressions" she faced "as one of the few Black female reporters doing the People’s Work."

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President Trump was a heavy presence in Ryan's book, making an appearance at least 59 times in the roughly 150-page book.

A staunch critic of the former president, Ryan lobbed both personal and political attacks against him.

She directly blamed Trump for "driving her to drink" after she received one of the inoperable pipe bombs sent to various Democrats and members of the media during 2018. 

"My health, which deteriorated because of the stress, worry, and anxiety induced by the actions and deliberate choices of the Trump administration, has rebounded. Donald Trump literally drove me to drink…But what is most striking and most personal to me is this: President Trump terrorized everyone who loves America, especially those who spoke up to defend America in her darkest hour," she wrote.

Despite telling "The View" that a reporter shouldn't be part of the story, her book was filled with passages hailing her own self-importance and even complaining when she didn't "get credit" in the briefing room.

"In the world of journalism, I am an endurance athlete. Through sheer force of will, I have stayed in my profession and climbed. My ascent hasn’t always been welcome, but it has always been needed," one passage began. 

In another she griped, "Unlike my great colleagues and personal friends who are elevated in the coverage for making important and incisive points, I am not. My identity as a Black woman is always erased from The Conversation. Even when we ignite the discussion. Let me be blunt: many people simply do not want to give Black women credit."