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Report: Ex-Oregon football player suing school, NCAA and Willie Taggart over ‘controversial workouts’
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A former Oregon football player is suing the school, the NCAA and ex-head coach Willie Taggart over a “series of controversial workouts” that took place in 2017, according to a report from ESPN’s Heather Dinich.
Doug Brenner, who played offensive line at Oregon, is suing the NCAA for $100 million in damages from the workouts, which he claims caused “lifelong injuries.” the University of Oregon and Taggart were also named as defendants in the suit.
Brenner’s legal team is seeking massive punitive damages from the NCAA, arguing it “acted with malice or has shown a reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm” because there isn’t a specific rule or bylaw regarding overexerting players during workouts. The NCAA argues that it doesn’t have the authority to pass health and safety bylaws — the member schools and conferences are responsible for players’ health and safety.
According to the documents, the workouts in question spanned over a four-day period and lasted 6o-to-90 minutes, beginning at 6 a.m. During that time, coaches “did not make water available in the workout room for at least the first day of the workouts.”
As a result of the intense conditions, the document alleges that “student athletes vomited, passed out, or collapsed during the workouts,” and that Oregon’s medical staff “acknowledged that the workout went beyond the student athletes’ natural limits after the first day, but rather than stop the workouts, university staff brought in oxygen tanks on the second day.”
Taggart was the head coach at Oregon for just one season (2017) before taking a job at Florida State. He is currently the head coach at FAU.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB