Ex-NFL Player Sues Famous Sports Surgeon for Whopping $180 Million
In the annals of sports medicine, Dr. James Andrews is to the operating room what “Dr. J” Julius Erving is to the basketball court — one of the greatest practitioners of his craft of all time.
But just as Dr. J wasn’t successful 100 percent of the time on the court, Andrews hasn’t been perfect in his practice — and that has one of his former patients up in arms and trying his luck at the legal lottery.
Former Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd is suing Andrews and his medical clinic for $180 million over what he says was a botched procedure in 2016.
Floyd, who was suffering from knee trouble, went into the Andrews Institute for arthroscopic surgery on the knee.
However, a more thorough diagnosis revealed the need for microfracture surgery, which is far more intrusive and involves drilling into bone, along with a much longer recovery period before the joint is ready for the rigors of playing sports.
For an example of the damage microfracture surgery can do, consider the NBA’s Amare Stoudemire, who had the procedure in 2006.
While he was still very good for another five years, he was never quite the player his early career explosion onto the scene promised he would be. By 2012 he was no longer an All-Star, and by 2016 he was out of the league, generally regarded as having fallen short of the Hall of Fame. This will become relevant as we examine this lawsuit.
Floyd’s surgery came with a side order of complications, and that’s what has him up in arms.
Floyd had a postoperation pain blocker prescribed, and his legal team alleges that the pain blockers caused nerve and surrounding muscle damage that effectively ended Floyd’s career, his explosiveness off the line in penetrating the backfield gone and presumed never to return.
And with demonstrable harm comes lost economic value; Floyd’s lawyers claim $180 million is a realistic estimate of the money Floyd would have made during his career but for the fact that Andrews and his assistants botched the procedure.
Lawyer Barry Sohn told ESPN, “I’m going to get justice for Sharrif. He would have earned, we believe, a considerable amount of money playing football, and we’re going to attempt to hold accountable the people who prevented him from playing football and ended his career. I’m prepared to go the distance.”
The $180 million figure is based on the “highest earning potential of the best players at his position,” according to Sohn.
“If you break something, you pay for it,” the lawyer told NFL.com. “And this lawsuit seeks to hold the parties’ responsible who we allege have done so. This guy went in for a routine knee scope and left without his incredibly lucrative career.”
Not included in the lawsuit are the Vikings, who put Floyd on the “non-football injury” list for the 2017 season and, while technically not obligated to give him anything, paid Floyd $2 million of his $6.757 million salary.
It ultimately will be up to the judge to determine whether negligence or malpractice was in play, whether that negligence is the reason Floyd’s earning potential was curtailed, and whether Floyd would indeed have made anything even close to $180 million when he was already injury-prone due to having gone in for surgery in the first place.
And that’s where Stoudemire’s story comes in — the counter to the argument of “he would have been elite” is to establish that yes, Andrews correctly diagnosed the need for microfracture surgery, and the very nature of that surgery itself is enough to shorten and reduce the effectiveness of an athletic career even when it is successful.
Football is a much more violent game than basketball.
A trial will likely be held in the late fall or early winter 2019, after the nearly yearlong process of fact-finding is complete.
But if Floyd wins, that could be a massive blow to the prestige of one of the greatest sports surgeons the practice of medicine has ever known.
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