Historically, the National Football League is known to chew folks up and spit them out when they’re finished with them. But in a recent court ruling, former Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush was shown some love by fate.
On Tuesday, a jury ordered the Los Angeles Rams to pay Bush $12.5 million for a severe knee injury suffered in 2015.
The jury found the Los Angeles Rams liable for the injury (which occurred the team’s last season in St. Louis) and ordered to pay $4.9 million in compensatory damages and $7.5 million in punitive damages, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bush, who was playing for the San Francisco 49ers at the time of his injury, was pushed out of bounds during a game at Edward Jones Dome and slipped on a concrete surface behind the 49ers bench.
Cameron DaSilva on Twitter
Here’s video of Reggie Bush tearing his ACL after slipping on concrete at the Edward Jones Dome. Rams ordered to pay him $12.5M as a result. https://t.co/NJJnMnSRTP https://t.co/ISwAZLOsxG
The lawyer argued that Bush’s earnings potential were undermined for the remainder of his career. Bush, now 33, works as an analyst for the NFL Network.
“Reggie lost his ability to do what he loved and to bargain for a contract that he worked his entire life for,” Bush’s lawyer Tim Cronin said during closing statements. “These players get chewed up. They only have so many chances.” Bush also sued public agencies that own and operate the dome, but a judge dismissed them from the suit last week after ruling that the team had control of game-day operations.
Just a week before Bush’s injury, Cleveland Browns quarterback Josh McCown slid across the same concrete stretch and injured his shoulder. The concrete surface in the dome was covered with rubber padding two weeks after Bush was injured.
