Former Steeler Chris Kemoeatu suing Steelers

I said repeatedly that I don't know. I'm not the one making assumptions, that was other posters in this thread. My point is that, even though we don't know the specifics of this case, the assumption, "Oh, the NFL would never do that, he must be making it up" is clearly not based in reality. The NFL has done things exactly like that, and remains a super shady company (or is it a nonprofit?) for a variety of reasons.

 

Can Will Smith put on the necessary 200 pounds to play Kemoeatu in the nearly Oscar worthy story of one man's fight against the NFL?

That's the real question here.

 

He's looking for deep pockets, thousands of people die every year in this country from medication causing terrible side effects, if he hid his kidney problem from the team doctors his case will be thrown out of court, if the docs knew about his condition and injected him anyway, he may have a case but it will be tough to prove it in court.....

 

Well that's an entirely separate problem, but it's still a problem. Imagine if you got hurt at work, what would you do if you knew that if you took time off to recover, you'd be at risk of losing your job forever and potentially never getting another job in that field again? I mean, do you really blame these guys? They get back out there every day in order to keep their jobs.

 

he said its more unsafe for kids riding bikes because of sheer numbers doing that as opposed to playing football. which is true. you make it out as if he's a moron instead of a maroon.

 

The level of ignorance and Steelers team-biased reasoning on here is unbelievable.

The NFL and the Steelers' medical staff should not be given any benefit of the doubt at this point. They want players to play, period. Sometimes this is at the expense of the long term health of the players. Has anyone on this board seen "Concussion" or the PBS Frontline "League of Denial"? The Steelers and the NFL more broadly have been sacrificing health for performance for years. Don't kid yourself.

I'd also encourage people to see the Real Sports episode regarding this Kemoeatu situation. He almost died on several occasions and he is in his 30's.

The notion that he somehow had pre-existing medical conditions that he did not expose to the team is ridiculous. These guys go through some of the most intense physical examinations available. They knew his kidneys were at risk. I think there is a very high chance that the Steelers' medical staff is at least somewhat responsible for the condition he is in now.

 

If this was a wide spread problem, he'd have a case. But medical injections aren't the only thing that affect kidney function.... sheesh. Feel bad for him, but there are plenty of other normal people out there that have the same operation..... and it likely wasn't caused by playing football in the NFL. Just saying.

 

The reality is if a player is injured his spot can be taken. See: Shaun Suisham.

Players will always put pressure on themselves to play hurt. It is too competitive not to.

Beachum is probably gone due to injury and AV stepping up.

People are even talking about Pouncey being released! He's been to 3 Pro bowls or something?

I'm tired of all the blame people put on others rather than themselves.

Kemo chose to play. He absolutely knew he was replaceable. He made a choice to play hurt and he still got the axe. He wasn't that good.

If the Steelers had forced Kemo to sit he would have been out of a job a lot earlier.

Plus, get a second opinion! No reason at all to trust only doctors linked to NFL. Take some responsibility.

 

"I'm suing those doctors... They were crooked and wrecked my kidneys and shortened my life and my brother's!"

"Of course they were crooked! Didn't you look at their track record? You shouldn't have trusted them!"

Do I have that right? Kemo could very well have be right on the merits, but even if he is, it's still his fault for trusting them when they obviously are capable of doing such horrible things? Should I just go screw myself if my family member dies of food poisoning from Chipotle? Forget that, I'm suing.

 

The key is whether team doctor(s) made a proper medical disclosure, so that Kemoeatu was able to give legally sufficient informed consent to the medication. Whether anyone knew of his kidney condition is immaterial, except if Kemoeatu knew and either: (a) failed to disclose it to doctors (so the docs could wave off the injection or substitute a different med); or (b) consented to the injections despite being told they carried the risk of damage to his (already compromised) kidney (in which case he assumed the risk, cutting off the team's potential liability).

 

Sadly, he said no such thing. He conveniently left that part out, and made us figure it out on our own. He strongly implied - and then outright said - that it was safer to play football than ride bikes, and for the record I don't think he did that because he's either a moron or a maroon, but rather because he cares more about his job and the NFL than he does children's health. There can be no other reason, unless this world-renowned brain surgeon really is too stupid to understand the concept of percentages.

Here's the quote from Dr. Maroon:

"There are more injuries to kids from falling off bikes, scooters, falling in playgrounds than there are in youth football. It’s never been safer. Can we improve? Yes, we have to do better all the time to make it safer, but I think if a kid is physically able to do it and wants to do it, our job is to continue to make it safer. But it’s much more dangerous riding a bike or a skateboard than playing youth football."

That message is from a man who is supposed to be trustworthy and knowledgeable, and it went out to millions. How many parents will factor this BS advice into their decisions? How many kids will get hurt because of it? Don't give me that, "It's still the parents'/kids' fault". You have a doctor lying to you. Listening to him is a mistake, but they wouldn't be doing it out of bad intention, and you're supposed to be able to trust him. He is doing it with bad - or at least reckless intentions, and recklessness is bad enough when it comes to children's brains.

Here is a much more sensible rebuttal from non-doctor (and former WWE wrestler) Chris Nowitzki:

"the [Centers for Disease Control] found that regarding concussions, football is the most dangerous activity for boys age 10-14, causing more emergency department visits for brain injuries than both riding a bike or a skateboard. For ages 5-9, there are more brain injuries resulting from football than skateboarding.

"The most likely reason that more 5-9-year-old boys go to the ER with brain injuries resulting from bike accidents is that far more boys ride bikes than play football. It is unfortunate that this important information is being miscommunicated in the media."

"In addition, it is not just concussions that make football dangerous for the brain, but it is also hundreds of subconcussive blows per year. Riding a bike or a skateboard are not known to cause hundreds of impact to the head in a year."

A fair comparison to Maroon's outrageous claim was made by another poster here back when he made it... More Americans die playing golf than fighting ISIS. Therefore, it is safer to go fight ISIS than it is to play golf. Now imagine the guy who spewed that nonsense is a military recruiter, I mean a military doctor talking about how safe the military is on TV, and you understand my outrage.

Here's the link to that quote. You'll notice it was NFL Total Access, and his egregious statement was not followed up with another question.

 

I didn't say anything of the sort. I said the NFL and the Steelers (Maroon) absolutely do NOT deserve the benefit of the doubt, and I don't understand all the benefit of the doubt they're getting.

I'll say something else. Everyone's focusing on Kemo and what he knew, if he wanted it. But it doesn't have to be that they strapped him down against his will. Whether he wanted the shot or not, even if they resisted until he yelled, "Give me the shot!!", if they knew more than they told him, or if they knew what it would do to his kidneys at all, it's on them. Kemo can be responsible too, but doctors are not supposed to destroy patients' kidneys, no matter what the patient says. If a doctor gave a bunch of crack to anyone that wanted it, would it be the patients' fault? Sure, but that doctor should be stripped of his license and probably arrested.

"But he really wanted it and wanted to play and I didn't want him to lose his starting position so I gave it to him even though I thought it might cause kidney failure" is not good enough. That's the whole point of these concussion protocols. It's no better than, "Yeah I thought there was a chance (Colt McCoy, Case Keenum) might have a concussion, but he kept saying he wanted to go back in the game." Doctors have responsibilities above football, and ignoring them that badly isn't just crummy work, it's criminal. I don't know why there wasn't a bigger outrage about those two plays. Both guys continued playing and promptly turned the ball over in crunch time. And they both looked like they'd never played football.

 

using common sense and not relying on every word as it is spoken or written in statistics or by anyone else when it comes to your life or your childrens lives should be how people interpret this. more kids play football than ride skateboards. more kids ride bikes than play football. use common sense and don't live your life off of every media press clipping and most times you will be fine. statistics can be construed in many ways to make a point. shoveling snow leads to heart attacks but people still do it. swimming leads to drownings, but people still do it. flying in planes, driving cars, etc.. sometimes you have to read between the lines and make your own decisions regarding you life and the lives of your children. any moron should know repeated head injuries doing anything can create problems. this isn't just a new revelation in medicine. kemo took the money and could have quit playing at any time he chose. now it's someone elses fault because there are dollar bills involved.

 

It would be nice to see some details and the facts of the case. At this point we're just making assumptions.

 

true.

 

oldskool bayer was the shiznit

 

I don't know, to me a brain surgeon explaining the level of risk to my child's brain in a given activity is no time for lies or misleading statements, and not a time I should have to "interpret what he really meant", especially if that happens to be the opposite of what he actually said.

"It’s much more dangerous riding a bike or a skateboard than playing youth football."

I don't see how you can "read between the lines" there and come away with anything other than what it says. We don't know he's wrong because we picked up on his hints, we know he's wrong because we figured out how and are able to make the connection about why he would lie to us, something you don't normally think about when listening to a doctor.

Defending a man for lying to the public about what is and isn't safe for their children's brains and putting those children and families at risk - and then blaming those families for any decisions they make, and then defending the man again... I don't understand. Why are you holding people accountable for listening to doctors, but not holding doctors accountable for lying to people in a way that risks their children? One side is trusting a doctor, which you're supposed to be able to do, and the other is harming children for money, which is evil.

 

Who says he's lying?

 

Everyone. Even his defenders here aren't making the case that's an accurate statement - only that it's not his responsibility to be honest and it's up to us to not listen to him.

He knows full well that the reason there are more bike injuries than football injuries is because WAY more kids ride bikes than play tackle football. He's lying. There's another post of mine in this thread with a detailed explanation. Look for the one with the blue font.