Former TCU wide receiver Kolby Listenbee filed a lawsuit Wednesday against TCU coach Gary Patterson, several university employees and the university itself, accusing them of pressuring him to play through an injury.
Listenbee also is suing the Big 12 conference for a "lack of policies, procedures and protocols" in safeguards against coaches pressuring athletes to play through injuries.
Listenbee is seeking monetary relief for more than $1 million, according to court records.
In 2015, Listenbee injured his pelvis during a game against SMU. As he sat out the next two weeks, Listenbee claims he was "continually harassed, humiliated, pressured, and threatened" by Patterson, then-offensive coordinator Doug Meacham and others to return to play before he had recovered.
Listenbee asserts in the lawsuit that he was diagnosed with pelvic instability, which "requires a minimum of six months of rest and rehabilitation," but was cleared after only two weeks and still in pain. According to the lawsuit, Listenbee claims the TCU training staff gave him "continuous injections" of local anesthetics and corticosteroids, sometimes before games and during halftimes. Listenbee says this later forced him to undergo surgery to repair two sports hernias and that he had to have a metal plate placed in the "area to fuse his pelvic bones together." Listenbee says that he was "never able to play in the NFL due to his pelvic instability."
TCU issued the following statement in response: "As a practice, Texas Christian University does not comment on the specifics of pending litigation. However, TCU takes tremendous pride in its long-standing tradition of excellence in providing a positive experience for its student-athletes, especially in the areas of care, prevention and rehabilitation of athletic injuries."
Among the defendants named in the lawsuit include former TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte, now the athletic director at Texas.