The NCAA has been named the defendant in yet another concussion lawsuit, this one brought by the families of four men who died prematurely.
The story of plaintiff Jennifer Finnerty is perhaps most poignant. Her late husband, Cullen Finnerty, was a quarterback for Grand Valley State University from 2003 to 2006. He left on a fishing trip in May of 2013. Three days later, he was found in the woods, dead at the age of 30.
Finnerty claims in the lawsuit that her husband became “confused and anxious, calling (her) stating that he was being followed by two men and was getting out of the water.”
This was not the first such incident, according to the lawsuit, which recounted a time when he “was out with co-workers in Detroit, Michigan, when he began to believe he was being followed. In a bout of paranoia, Mr. Finnerty drove 150 miles to his brother’s house. When he arrived, there was nobody behind him.”
An autopsy revealed that he had CTE.
The NCAA is responsible, according to the plaintiffs since it “failed to recognize and monitor concussive and subconcussive injuries during practices and games; failed to inform student-athletes about the dangers of such injuries; failed to implement rules about when players could return to play after suffering concussions; failed to monitor their health after suffering concussions; and failed to inform their families about the injuries.
“For decades, the NCAA has been aware — through its own institutional knowledge, medical science, and news articles about former football players — that severe head impacts can lead to long-term brain injury, including memory loss, dementia, depression, and CTE,” the lawsuit said, according to ESPN. “Unfortunately, while the NCAA knew about the harmful and devastating effects of these subconcussive and concussive injuries, it recklessly ignored these facts and failed to implement reasonable concussion management protocols to protect its athletes, including Cullen Finnerty.”
Other lawsuits were filed by the widows of former San Diego State linebacker Jeff Staggs; UCLA and Long Beach State running back Rodney Stensrud (1969-73) and the mother of former USC fullback Doug MacKenzie (1977-81).
The Finnerty complaint can be viewed here:
More to Come
Jay Edelson, the founder and chief executive of Edelson PC, which is representing the plaintiffs in three of the cases, told the Los Angeles Times that his “goal is to take these to trial. Our clients want to get in front of a jury. We think a jury is going to act very favorably to the stories that they have, and we want to get there as soon as we can.”
He also told the paper the lawsuits will be the first of many to be filed against the NCAA, expressing disappointment that the Ploetz case did not reach a verdict.
“In order for the NCAA to really understand the scope of what they’re dealing with, we’re probably going to have to try a bunch of these cases and get verdicts,” he said. “And in terms of whether that will lead to a global resolution, I am not sure we will be able to do that without trying 20, 40, 60 cases.”
He added that he learned from Ploetz.
“The NCAA wants to make these cases about whether football is good, which is not what the cases are about,” Edelson told the Times. “We all love football. It’s about whether the players ought to be protected and given information. Even with a jury that I think was as ideal as the NCAA could pick, they still did not want it to go to verdict. We were definitely informed by that.”
