Former Oregon Football Player Doug Brenner Sues UO, NCAA, and Willie Taggart
Former Offensive Lineman Doug Brenner has filed a lawsuit against former Oregon Football Head Coach Willie Taggart stemming from an incident in January 2017.
In January 2017 as Oregon Football players returned to campus to start meeting with then new Head Coach Willie Taggart, the workout routine set by the new Head Coach sent three players, including Doug Brenner to the hospital. On Wednesday, Brenner filed a lawsuit against the University of Oregon, the NCAA, and Willie Taggart.
According to the Oregonian, Brenner is seeking $11.5 million in damages citing negligence from the University of Oregon for failing to ‘prohibit, regulate, or supervise the workouts.’ The suit also says that Willie Taggart and Strength Coach Irele Oderinde were ‘negligent in imposing and carrying out’ the workouts. Both are now with Florida State. The suit also includes the NCAA for ‘failing to regulate practices at member institutions.’
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One of the main aspects of the suit is to get the attention of the NCAA to change rules to make it mandatory that offseason workouts are better regulated so that cases like what happened at Oregon in 2017 do not happen again.
When Taggart took over one of his key areas to focus on was discipline. Some of the ways he went about having workouts was militaristic according to some players. Others said on Social Media that the imposed workout routines were not easy, but may have been overblown by some teammates. Taggart’s intention was to ‘find the snakes in the grass, and cut their heads off.’
Before becoming Oregon Head Coach, Taggart’s teams were among the most penalized in the NCAA. In his one season at Oregon, the Ducks were the most penalized team in the Pac-12 Conference. Since then with the addition of Mario Cristobal as Head Coach, the team last year was the least penalized.
Florida State and Willie Taggart along with the NCAA have not yet issued a response to the lawsuit. Brenner played for the Ducks as a backup Offensive Lineman from 2013-2016. The workout session in January 2017 sent him and two other players to the hospital and ended his playing career.