A former NFL punter who became an orthopedic surgeon is suing the NCAA after a Parkinson's diagnosis he says destroyed his medical career — and he has the credentials to make the cartel sweat.
Patrick O'Neill, 55, filed suit November 2 in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleging the NCAA knew repetitive head trauma was linked to Parkinson's disease as far back as the 1930s but failed to warn or protect the young men who built its multi-billion-dollar enterprise. O'Neill was an Academic All-American and University Scholar at Syracuse, where he punted from 1990 to 1993. He was pushed to play through head injuries without ever being told the risks, the complaint states.
This is not a plaintiff who can be dismissed as uninformed. O'Neill earned a degree in bioengineering at Syracuse, then attended Johns Hopkins University Medical School starting in 1998. He completed a five-year surgical residency at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center and Union Memorial Hospital. He rose to chief of orthopedic surgery at Sarasota Memorial Hospital and now practices at Kennedy-White Orthopedic Center in Sarasota — the only board-certified, fellowship-trained foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon in his county, according to the New York Post.
Now that career is in ruins. "This brain disease has forced Patrick O'Neill to suffer great loss, including in his ability to practice as an orthopedic surgeon," the lawsuit states.
O'Neill alleges the NCAA ignored doctors' recommendations to bar players from contact sports after three moderate concussions. "Without competent medical professionals properly versed in repetitive head trauma on the sidelines, Patrick O'Neill repeatedly sustained trauma to his head in games and/or practice in NCAA football," the complaint reads. "Despite the trauma, Patrick O'Neill was never removed from the field for examination, rest, and treatment."
The New York Post reported that O'Neill blames the NCAA for its lack of concussion-related regulations. Essentially Sports noted a Harvard study finding at least one in four former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The Post added that O'Neill played for the Patriots, Bears, Jets, and Jaguars after being drafted in 1994 — details Essentially Sports omitted.
Neither outlet pressed the money question: how much revenue the NCAA extracts from college football while shedding liability for the men who generate it. The NCAA, Syracuse University, O'Neill, and his attorney all declined comment, per the Post.
The NCAA has settled concussion-related claims before. What's different here is the man bringing it — a surgeon who can read his own charts and explain them to a jury. The question is whether the cartel pays out or finally opens its books on what it knew and when.
