Brother of only two-time Heisman winner suing Big Ten, NCAA over concussions

Well this has the potential to make Griffin family uncomfortable and/or awkward.

Ohio State running back Archie Griffin (pictured, right) is the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner in the award’s history, and is still connected to the university as the president of The Ohio State University Alumni Association. Griffin’s brother, Ray Griffin (pictured, left), also played his college football for the Buckeyes, and therein lies the basis for his ascension into a headline.

According to the Columbus Dispatch and The Lantern, OSU’s student newspaper, Ray Griffin is one of four former college football players who have filed lawsuits against the Big Ten and the NCAA. Griffin’s lawsuit alleges that those two institutions, as well as OSU, failed to protect student-athletes according to The Association’s own Constitution, especially as it pertains to the area of concussions.

OSU is not named as a defendant in the suit, but is the subject of harsh language within it. From the student paper:

The lawsuit also states that until 2010, OSU “completely ignored” the guideline and any concussion safety protocols, and neither the NCAA nor the Big Ten “enforced” the statement in the guideline referring to the removal of an unconscious player permanently from the game or practice the injury occurred in.

Ray Griffin, who played for OSU from 1974-77, is part of what is a class-action lawsuit that claims to represent every Buckeye football player from 1952 -- the year the first concussion impact article as it relates to football players was published in the New England Journal of Medicine -- through 2010 -- the Dispatch denotes that as the year “when protocols finally were started to actively monitor, treat and try to prevent them.”

The suit alleges that “between 1974 and 1977, (Griffin) was subjected to repeated head impacts and (traumatic brain injury) in practices and games, and suffered numerous concussions each year as a result. Over time, Griffin began to experience the consequences of these concussions. He began to struggle with severe depression, anxiety, short term memory loss, impulse problems, anger issues, and other debilitating problems.”

It should be noted that Griffin went on to play seven years in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals.

The identities of the other three players involved in separate federal suits were not revealed in these reports, other than that they played their college football at Duke, Michigan and Tennessee. However, it was reported elsewhere that the players are Derrick Lee (Duke), O.J. Owens (Tennessee) and Steve Strinko (Michigan).