politics
30 Former Ohio State Football Players Join Existing Strauss Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against University
Thirty ex-Buckeyes, more than a dozen of whom played in the NFL, have signed engagement letters to join the long-running class-action case against the university over sexual abuse by former campus doctor Richard Strauss. The addition broadens a legal battle that has been led largely by former wrestlers since 2018.
May 7, 1:01 PM·2m read1 source
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Thirty former Ohio State University football players, including more than a dozen who went on to play in the NFL, have signed engagement letters to join a class-action lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by former campus doctor Richard Strauss decades ago.
Mike DiSabato announced the addition of the 30 players in a press release on Thursday. Attorney Rocky Ratliff, a former OSU wrestler and one of the Strauss survivors suing the school, is representing the former football players.
"They signed up under me, but eventually they will be part of the class action lawsuit," Ratliff said. The three prominent former players named in the announcement are Al Washington, Ray Ellis and Keith Ferguson, all of whom later played professional football.
The group played for NFL teams including the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns and the former San Diego Chargers.
Al Washington, who later played for the New York Jets, is 67 years old and runs a private insurance company in Columbus, Ohio. "When you play football, you encounter obstacles, and when I was a Buckeye, I decided not to let what happened to me defeat me, so I kept quiet," Washington told NBC News ahead of the announcement Thursday.
" The former football players allege that Strauss sexually abused them under the guise of giving them required pre-participation physicals.
Washington became aware of the scope of the Strauss abuse allegations and legal actions against OSU several years after Mike DiSabato went public in 2018 with allegations that Strauss sexually abused him and hundreds of other athletes and that the school knew about it but did nothing to stop him.
