NEW YORK – Orlando Brown, formerly of the Cleveland Browns, has filed
a $200 million dollar lawsuit against the National Football League
for injuries suffered when he was hit in the eye by a penalty flag
thrown by a referee, a lawyer said Wednesday.
The complaint charges that the league failed "to properly
supervise and enforce rules that flags be properly weighted and
thrown in a proper fashion," said Clifford J. Stern, a lawyer with
The Cochran Firm who said he had signed the complaint.
The complaint was filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in the
Bronx, Stern said, and copies of it were to be distributed at a New
York news conference with attorney Johnnie Cochran on Thursday.
Brown, 29, who was an offensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns,
was injured in a Dec. 19, 1999, game against the Jacksonville
Jaguars, when referee Jeff Triplette's penalty flag hit his right
eye.
Brown was ejected from the game -- and widely criticized in the
press -- after shoving Triplette to the ground.
"At the time, Orlando was probably one of the highest paid
lineman in the NFL," Stern said, describing his football career as
"promising."
But Brown can never play football again because "any kind of
substantial contact to the head would cause an inalterable change
in his ability to see. He would go blind," Stern said.
Brown has said he continues to feel pain and see white flashes
whenever he exerts himself and that he didn't learn of nerve damage
and damage to the viscous in his right eye until doctors in New
York examined him.
Stern added that Brown is particularly sensitive to the loss of
sight because his father, who has glaucoma, is blind.
"We are aware of the lawsuit," said Greg Aiello, a spokesman
for the NFL. "The play was an unfortunate accident and the injury
to the player was totally inadvertent."
The Browns released Brown in September. He was in the second
year of a six-year, $27 million deal that included a $7.5 million
signing bonus last season.
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