Family of Deceased WSU Football Player Sues NCAA

The NCAA has been hit again with a lawsuit regarding concussions and head injuries, according to Bloomberg Law.

The suit, filed by the family of former Washington State football player Dorian Boose alleges that the NCAA failed to provide him with proper medical and monitoring for the countless sub-concussive hits he suffered during his playing career. Boose, who played for the Cougars from 1995 to 1998, died by suicide in 2016 following a decline in his cognitive abilities.

An autopsy found that Boose’s brain had signs of neurodegenerative changes, which could be correlated to his “history of progressive decline in cognitive function and behavioral abnormalities.”

“Dorian Boose — and football players at WSU like him — relied upon the NCAA’s authority and guidance to protect his health and safety by treating and preventing head-related injuries, including the effects of those head injuries later on in his life,” the lawsuit, filed March 27 in U.S. District Court in Indiana, reads. “As compared to Dorian Boose and other WSU football players, the NCAA was in a superior position to know of and mitigate the risks of sustaining head impacts and injuries of all kinds, including concussions and TBIs, while playing football at WSU. It failed to do so.”

Bloomberg reports that the suit seeks a class of similarly situated ex-Washington State athletes, including “all authorized representatives of deceased or legally incapacitated individuals who participated in WSU’s varsity football program between 1952 and 2010.”

For its part, the NCAA told Bloomberg that it “looks forward to correcting the factual and legal record.”