Widow Plans to Intensify Her Battle With the N.F.L.
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The widow of Korey Stringer, the Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman who died of complications from heatstroke two years ago at training camp, has decided to intensify what has been a long and bitter legal battle with the National Football League. Lawyers for the widow, Kelci Stringer, said she would sue the league and its 32 teams tomorrow, saying players are exposed to unreasonable heat-related risks, ones that led to her husband’s death. The newest lawsuit, which follows an unsuccessful wrongful-death suit she filed against the Vikings, is sure to open old wounds in a league that was devastated when Korey Stringer died Aug. 1, 2001. ”We’re going to put the practices and policies of the N.F.L. on trial,” said Stan Chesley, a lawyer from the Cincinnati firm of Waite, Schneider, Bayless & Chesley. ”People need to really understand what happens in an N.F.L. training camp.” Korey Stringer is the only N.F.L. player to die of heatstroke, and as players begin their annual camp workouts amid the blistering heat, two basic questions remain, questions that may never be answered: Who, if anyone, is responsible for Korey Stringer’s death, and does football’s mentality of conducting training camp in the hottest part of the year put its players at risk? An N.F.L. spokesman, Greg Aiello, said the league was aware of the possibility of legal action. He said the league had taken great care not to put players at unnecessary risk and had instituted precautions to protect them. Some of the measures, Aiello said, include a ban of any product that contains ephedrine, a stimulant that was not found in Stringer. Also, Aiello said, medical experts on preventing heat-related illness spoke to owners and coaches at their meetings in March and to assistant coaches at a symposium in May. The subject was covered at the rookie symposium this off-season, Aiello added, and during conference calls with all head coaches last week. The lawsuit, to be filed in federal court, will assert that the league was negligent, Kelci Stringer’s lawyers said in telephone interviews. The lawyers also said she would sue Riddell Sports Group Inc., which provides approximately 85 percent of the helmets to N.F.L. players. The lawsuit says that the Riddell helmet and shoulder pads that Korey Stringer was wearing the day he died were substandard because they were composed of the same materials used to insulate homes and did not allow his body to cool properly. Both items of equipment, the lawyers said, contributed to his death. A spokesman for Riddell said he was unaware of any potential lawsuit. He had no further comment. One of the more interesting aspects about the newest court volley from the Stringer family, legal experts say, is that the lawsuit challenges what it calls the wrongheaded culture of the N.F.L., particularly the training-camp culture, in which coaches have long believed it is better for the conditioning of players to train in sweltering heat. The lawyers for Stringer maintain that medical science has long proved otherwise. Besides asking for compensatory and punitive damages, Kelci Stringer is seeking the elimination of training-camp practice policies that the lawsuit maintains were a factor in her husband’s death, like keeping players on the field in the extreme heat. One lawyer for Kelci Stringer said N.F.L. training camps were a troubling combination of dangerous heat, equipment that does not properly ventilate, medical staffs that are not adequately trained to deal with heat illnesses and a mentality that says practicing in extremely hot weather helps the players become better conditioned. The N.F.L. denies this and says its players practice in safe conditions. ”The league needs to rethink how it trains its players in hot summer weather,” said Paul DeMarco, one of Kelci Stringer’s lawyers. In addition to her wrongful-death suit against the Vikings in state court, she brought a claim of malpractice against Dr. David Knowles, who treated Korey Stringer before his death. A Minnesota judge ruled in April that the Vikings had not been negligent, a ruling that is being appealed. In June she reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with Knowles. |