JURY HOLDS TEAM DOCTOR RESPONSIBLE FOR $11.5 MILLION TO FORMER MIAMI DOLPHINS RECEIVER WHO WAS CLEARED TO PLAY WHILE INJURED | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog

O.J. McDuffie, a former wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins filed a lawsuit against the team doctor, John Uribe, M.D. who cleared him to play. As a result, McDuffie claimed he had to retire prematurely. The jury agreed and found that McDuffie should be compensated in the amount of $11.5 million for his damages.

This is lawsuit stems from the handling of McDuffie’s injury and his status to play with an injured big toe in 1999 that he claims led to an early end of his career. McDuffie sustained the injury in the 10th game of the 1999 season. After being injured, the lawsuit alleged that McDuffie was told by team physician, Dr. Uribe, that McDuffie could continue to play even though MRIs of the toe showed tendon damage. As a result of the advice of the medical professionals, McDuffie played in two of the remaining six regular-season games, and then played in both playoff games that year. McDuffie was also in uniform for nine games in 2000, but none in 2001. In 2002, McDuffie was released from the team during the offseason with three years left on his contract following a longer-than-average nine-year NFL career.

McDuffie, who was the Dolphins’ first-round pick from Penn State in the 1993 NFL Draft, However, once he injured his toe, McDuffie basically lost his effectiveness as a receiver and was eventually cut from the team and forced to retire early.

• In 1998, the year before the injury, McDuffie led the NFL with 90 receptions for 1,050 yards and with seven touchdowns in 1998.
• In 1999, McDuffie had only 43 receptions for 516 yards and two touchdowns.
• In 2000, McDuffie’s numbers fell almost completely off of the map as he only recorded 14 receptions for 143 yards and no touchdowns.
• McDuffie finished his career with 415 receptions for 5,074 yards and 29 career touchdowns.

The jury awarded $10 million of lost earnings and $1.5 million of anguish,” said Stuart Ratzan, who handled the case along with Herman Russomanno. “They (the jury) were moved by the shattered dreams and career of Mr. McDuffie.”

In a profession where injuries and playing injured are expected, this verdict is remarkable and may have a far reaching consequences. Professional sports are more than just a game. Professional sports are big business, not only to the owners, but also to the players and even to the team doctors that provide services to these teams. While there is no doubt that most of these team doctors provide excellent quality medical care and advice to the players, these doctors tend to use this affiliation as a marketing tool to bolster their reputations and practices. However, in the end it is the medical advice and treatment that matters to the player as his livelihood depends on his health and his ability to play. In some cases, the player’s entire career and future contracts may be at risk if he is not cleared to play. In other cases, a career can be cut short, if an injured player is cleared to play. A classic example of this dilemma is when the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks benched his star player Dirk Nowitzki during the playoffs because of concerns that Dirk’s injury could be so severe that playing injured might jeopardize his career.

The players and the teams depend heavily on their team physicians to give the right medical advice about whether or not a player should be permitted to play despite an injury, and to consider whether or not playing with an injury or a weakened body part could jeopardize a player’s career and the team’s financial investments in that player. While there are many cases where the decision is easy, there are bound to be a number of decisions each year where the decision is not so clear.

There is little doubt that the NFL’s closer look at the effect of concussions will be affected by this verdict as doctors, teams and players are more concerned than ever before about the long term and cumulative effects of concussions and other injuries. It will be interesting to see how teams, players, the players’ union and team physicians react to this verdict and to see what type of disclaimers players and possibly even teams will now be forced to sign before a team physician clears a player to play with an injury.

Montes Law Group, P.C.

Attorneys: Rachel Montes

1121 Kinwest Parkway, Suite 100

Irving, Texas 75063