A jury found the NCAA negligent, but did not award any of the $100 million Doug Brenner was seeking in damages for injuries he sustained during a controversial workout.
The jury didn't believe that the NCAA's negligent behavior contributed to his injuries.
Kafoury said they will appeal.
We hope this case is a shot across the bow to the NCAA, and that it will further the effort to protect student-athletes from preventable injuries and deaths.
He said that if the NCAA doesn't change rules, they will look at a lot of future lawsuits.
A person from the NCAA did not return a request for comment.
The NCAA does not have the authority to pass health and safety by-laws because the member schools and conferences are responsible for players health and safety.
The NCAA objected to the idea that the Sports Medicine Handbook should be subject to monitoring, investigation, and enforcement.
The University of Oregon reached a $500,000 settlement with Brenner over his hospitalization.
Willie Taggart, now the head coach at Florida Atlantic, and his former strength coach, Irele Oderinde, had their claims against them dismissed as part of the settlement with Oregon. The strength coach for the women's basketball team at South Florida, Oderinde, was dismissed for reasons unrelated to what happened at Oregon, according to a source.
Oderinde lost his job in a statement that was provided to Oregon.
The events surrounding this lawsuit happened a long time ago, according to the statement shared with ESPN. I am sorry to hear that Coach O was terminated for things that happened a long time ago. I now understand that the workouts that lead us here were intended as team building exercises and that they got out of hand after hearing Coach T and Coach O testify.
The law firm of Kafoury & McDougal first filed the suit in the state of Oregon. In his claims against Oregon, Taggart and Oderinde, he was seeking over twenty million dollars in damages. The trial started on April 12.
Oderinde, who was hired by Taggart at Florida State for the same position, was suspended by Oregon for a month without pay in the summer of 2017, after two players were hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis after working out.
According to the lawsuit, the workout lasted for 60 to 90 minutes, and the staff did not make water available in the workout room for at least the first day of the workouts.
The strength and conditioning coach answered to the director of performance and sports science instead of the head coach after the incident, which prompted Oregon to change its reporting system.
Taggart apologized for the incident, but he was happy that a lot of the truth came out during the proceedings.
The university argued during the trial that the workouts were excessive, but not intended to be punished. According to the Oregonian, Oderinde apologized during his testimony.
Oderinde said that he never wanted kids to be injured in any way, especially from a workout or practice. I think Doug understands that our intent was never to build young men and to build a team.
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