Armond Armstead settles USC lawsuit, but his case still has meaning for the CFL

A long and strange saga involving a former CFL player wrapped up this week, with former Toronto Argonaut Armond Armstead settling his lawsuit against the University of Southern California, one of the school's doctors and a medical centre. The decision to settle the suit means we won't have a clear legal finding one way or the other on if USC mishandled Armstead's medical treatment, but the information that has emerged from Armstead's legal filings is still valuable. What happened with Armstead can serve as a cautionary tale for all of football, including the CFL.

Armstead's suit was over USC doctor James Tibone's use of painkiller Toradol, which Armstead claimed caused him to suffer a heart attack in 2011. He missed USC's season that year as a result and was undrafted by the NFL in 2012. He came to Canada and won a Grey Cup with the Argos in November 2012, earning a league all-star nod in the process. The team then released him a year early so he could try the NFL, something they've done with other players over the years. Armstead signed with the Patriots in 2013, but missed that season after July surgery to treat an undisclosed infection; he participated in offseason workouts with them following the season, but elected to retire from the NFL at 23 in June of last year.

It emerged in Armstead's court filings this week that he'd suffered a second heart attack in 2014 before retiring, and that his Patriots' contract required him to have heart surgery before joining the team. The part in this Sacramento Bee piece about the injections Armstead had at USC is quite something:

The lawsuit claims USC medical personnel shot him up 11 times at 60 milligrams a pop to ease the pain in a shoulder he sprained two days before a game against Virginia, the second of his junior season. Armstead’s improved range of motion allowed him to make 43 tackles, including 61/2 for a loss, three sacks, two knocked-down passes, one quarterback hurry and one recovered fumble that season.

Toradol is classified as a “nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug,” along the lines of Advil or Aleve, but one that is injected rather than ingested. The Food and Drug Administration warns Toradol “may cause an increased risk of serious cardiovascular thrombotic events, myocardial infarction, and stroke, which can be fatal.”

Dr. James E. Tibone, USC’s team physician, said Armstead’s heart attack had nothing to do with Toradol. During his deposition, Tibone said he has been injecting it into football players for 15 years without anyone experiencing anything close to a coronary.

Dreyer pressed him about those FDA warnings.

“I don’t agree with them,” Tibone replied.

In court papers, USC’s lawyers suggested Armstead’s heart problem is congenital.

Again, that lawsuit being settled means we won't see the legal system determine the validity of Armstead or USC's claims. Armstead's case is yet another sign that teams need to be extremely careful with painkillers, though. While a class-action painkiller lawsuit against the NFL was dismissed in December, the judge's ruling there essentially said players should go after individual doctors or teams rather than the league. Painkiller use in football (and other sports; consider hockey, where in addition to the widespread concussion lawsuit, there's still a wrongful-death suit from Derek Boogaard's family involving painkillers) is often highly problematic, and it needs to be monitored closely.

There's been no suggestion so far that CFL doctors did anything wrong in Armstead's case, but what happened to him (whether it was from Toradol or not) should still be a warning for the league to be extremely careful with how it handles painkillers. As Armstead's lawyers' statement following the settlement said, "It is his hope that above all, the NCAA and all college football programs will adopt a commitment to always put the individual safety of student athletes ahead of the need to win.” That should be true for the CFL too.

(Thanks to Elizabeth for the tip about Armstead's court documents.)