FILE PHOTO – Nov 24, 2018; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Willie Taggart after the game against the Florida Gators at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports
January 12, 2019
Another football player has sued the University of Oregon, former football coach Willie Taggart, the school’s former strength coach and the NCAA, alleging he suffered long-term effects from offseason workouts in 2017.
Sam Poutasi, an offensive lineman who played as a redshirt sophomore in 2018, said the workouts caused him to be diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis and subsequently hospitalized. He is seeking $5 million in damages for what he termed “physical and emotional pain, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, and diminishment of avocational abilities, in the past, present, and future.”
Earlier in the week, former Oregon offensive lineman Doug Brenner filed an $11.5 million suit for negligence against the university, Taggart, former strength coach Irele Oderinde and the NCAA.
Both Brenner and Poutasi contend the university was negligent in its failure to regulate, supervise or prohibit the workouts; that Taggart and Oderinde were negligent in conducting those workouts; and that the NCAA has failed in its oversight of coaches at NCAA schools.
Taggart is now the head coach at Florida State, where Oderinde is on his staff.
The lawsuit states Poutasi was in the hospital for a week in January 2017 and suffered from “severely swollen arms, muscle aches and pains, loss of use of arms, elevated creatinine kinase levels caused by AER, discolored urine and damage to kidneys.”
At the time, The Oregonian reported that multiple sources compared the workouts to military basic training.
A third player, tight end Cam McCormick, also was hospitalized in January 2017.
–Field Level Media
