To no surprise, the Cleveland Browns have denied the allegations made by receiver Joe Jurevicius in a lawsuit that the player filed against the team, the Cleveland Clinic, and two doctors resulting from the player’s development of a staph infection in 2008.
Attorney Fred Nance tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the Browns “deny the allegations and will vigorously defend against them.”
(Nance, coincidentally, was one of the finalists for the position of NFL Commissioner in 2006.)
“The Browns are reviewing the allegations of the complaint,” Nance added. “We are very comfortable that the practices and equipment at the Browns training facility are and have been fully compliant with all NFL requirements and sound customary practices for training facilities. In fact, an independent professional review earlier this year concluded that the Browns had taken appropriate steps to prevent MRSA infections at their facilities.”
But, obviously, the Browns -- or someone else connected to Jurevicius -- didn’t do enough.
Said attorney Shannon Polk, who is representing Jurevicius: “The Browns held their training facility out as a world-class place for care and treatment and extended it to their players and others like a hospital. Joe could’ve gone anywhere to rehab after his off-season surgery. He chose to accept care and treatment from the Browns’ staff and the Cleveland Clinic physicians because he trusted and believed what he was told about the staph problem. It turns out he shouldn’t have.”
Added Jurevicius, via Polk: “I wanted to play out my career for my hometown team. I hate that it all came down to this, especially over something preventable. But this problem goes beyond me -- it touches every player who trusts what they are told about the care they are being offered.”
That’s the real issue here. Regardless of why or how it happened to Jurevicius or any other Browns player, the reality is that it happened. And that it shouldn’t have happened. And that it kept happening. And that nothing the Browns or the Cleveland Clinic did could seem to keep it from continuing to happen.
Apart from the transfer of wealth that often occurs within the confines of the civil justice system, the impact of litigation on an organization’s balance sheet creates the clearest possible incentive to identify the causes of a problem and to fix them, once and for all.
Morals and ethics and mission statements only go so far; nothing creates a genuine sense of urgency than an actual or perceived run on a company’s bank.
So regardless of how the lawsuit filed by Jurevicius turns out, the fact that it was filed at all could go a long way toward protecting current and future members of the Browns organization from contracting an illness that indeed is, to a large degree, preventable.
