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LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury on Tuesday rejected a declare by the widow of a former USC soccer participant who mentioned the NCAA failed to guard him from repeated head trauma that led to his demise.
Matthew Gee, a linebacker on the 1990 Rose Bowl-winning squad, endured an estimated 6,000 hits that brought on everlasting mind harm and led to cocaine and alcohol abuse that ultimately killed him at age 49, attorneys for his widow alleged.
The NCAA mentioned it had nothing to do with Gee’s demise, which it mentioned was a sudden cardiac arrest introduced on by untreated hypertension and acute cocaine toxicity. A lawyer for the governing physique of U.S. school sports activities mentioned Gee suffered from many different well being issues not associated to soccer, comparable to liver cirrhosis, that will have ultimately killed him.
The decision may have broad ramifications for faculty athletes who blame the NCAA for head accidents.
Lots of of wrongful demise and private harm lawsuits have been introduced by school soccer gamers towards the NCAA prior to now decade, however Gee’s is the primary one to succeed in a jury alleging that hits to the pinnacle led to continual traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative mind illness recognized by its acronym, CTE.
Alana Gee had testified that the faculty sweethearts had 20 good years of marriage earlier than her husband’s psychological well being started to deteriorate and he grew to become indignant, depressed and impulsive, and started overeating and abusing medicine and alcohol.
Attorneys for Gee mentioned CTE, which is present in athletes and army veterans who suffered repetitive mind accidents, was an oblique reason behind demise as a result of head trauma has been proven to advertise substance abuse.
The NCAA mentioned the case hinged on what it knew on the time Gee performed, from 1988-92, and never about CTE, which was first found within the mind of a deceased NFL participant in 2005.
Gee by no means reported having a concussion and mentioned in an utility to play with the Raiders after graduating that he had by no means been knocked unconscious, NCAA legal professional Will Stute mentioned.
“You’ll be able to’t maintain the NCAA chargeable for one thing 40 years later that no person ever reported,” Stute mentioned in his closing argument. “The plaintiffs need you in a time journey machine. We do not have one on the NCAA. It is not truthful.”
Attorneys for Gee’s household mentioned there was little doubt that Matt Gee suffered concussions and numerous sub-concussive blows.
Mike Salmon, a teammate who went on to play within the NFL, testified that Gee, who was crew captain his senior 12 months, as soon as was so dazed from successful that he could not name the following play.
Gee was considered one of 5 linebackers on the 1989 Trojans squad who died earlier than turning 50. All displayed indicators of psychological deterioration related to head trauma.
As with teammate and NFL star Junior Seau, who killed himself in 2012, Gee’s mind was examined posthumously at Boston College’s Persistent Traumatic Encephalopathy Middle and located to have CTE.
Jurors weren’t allowed to listen to testimony about Gee’s deceased teammates.
Alana Gee’s attorneys had argued that the NCAA, which was based in 1906 for athlete security, had recognized about impacts from head accidents for the reason that Nineteen Thirties however failed to coach gamers, ban headfirst contact, or implement baseline testing for concussion signs.
Her attorneys had requested jurors to award $55 million to compensate for her loss.
Alana Gee had tears in her eyes and sniffled as the decision was learn. She advised considered one of her attorneys that she did not perceive how the jury got here to that call, and declined to remark afterward.
“We really feel deep sympathy for the Gee household proper off the bat,” Stute, the NCAA legal professional, mentioned afterward. “However we really feel like this verdict is a vindication of the place we have taken in all these instances.”
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