A jury in Los Angeles rejected a claim by the widow of a USC football player that the NCAA failed to protect him from head trauma that led to his death.
Matthew Gee, a member of the 1990 Rose Bowl-winning squad, suffered an estimated 6,000 hits that caused permanent brain damage and led to cocaine and alcohol abuse that eventually killed him at age 49, according to lawyers for his widow.
The NCAA said it had nothing to do with his death, which it said was caused by a sudden cardiac arrest brought on by hypertension and cocaine toxicity. A lawyer for the governing body of U.S. college sports said that there were other health problems that could have killed him.
College athletes who blame the NCAA for head injuries could be affected by the verdict.
Over the past decade, hundreds of wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits have been brought by college football players against the NCAA, but the first one to reach a jury alleges that hits to the head led to chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Scott Bearby, NCAA senior vice president of legal affairs and general counsel, said in a statement that the jury agreed with the NCAA's position. The NCAA did not bear responsibility for Mr. Gee's death and medical science did not support the case. We extend our sympathies to the family.
The organization will aggressively defend against cases that wrongly try to exploit the legal system to unfairly target the NCAA.
The college sweethearts had been married for 20 years before his mental health began to decline and he began abusing drugs and alcohol.
According to attorneys for Gee, head trauma has been shown to promote substance abuse and that the cause of death was due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
In his application to play for the Raiders after graduating, he said that he had never been knocked unconscious, according to Will Stute.
Stute said in his closing argument that the NCAA can't be held responsible for something that never happened. The people want you to use a time travel device. At the NCAA, we do not have one. It's not right.
The attorneys for the family said there was no doubt that Matt had suffered concussions.
Mike Salmon, a teammate who went on to play in the NFL, testified that when he was a captain, he couldn't call the next play because he was so concussive from a hit.
One of the five USC players who died before their 50th birthday was Gee. There are signs of mental decline related to head trauma.
Junior Seau, who killed himself in 2012 and was found to have Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, had his brain examined posthumously and it was found to have the disease.
The jury couldn't hear testimony about the dead teammates.
The NCAA has known about impacts from head injuries since the 1930s, but failed to educate players, ban headfirst contact or implement baseline testing for concussion symptoms.
Her lawyers asked for $55 million for her loss.
As the verdict was read, she had a tear in her eyes. She told her lawyer that she didn't understand how the jury came to a decision.
Stute, the NCAA attorney, said they felt sympathy for the family immediately. We feel like this verdict is a confirmation of our stance in all these cases.
The AP contributed.
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