$43.5 Million Verdict for Former Eagles Captain Over Career-Ending Knee Injury

Chris Maragos tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on October 12, 2017, in a game against the Carolina Panthers. He was a special teams captain for the Philadelphia Eagles, three seasons into a career that had already lasted eight years in a league where the average run is 3.3. He never played another down.

The surgery was done by Dr. James Bradley, a Pittsburgh orthopedic surgeon who had spent more than 30 years as a team physician for the Steelers and had operated on high profile NFL knees, including Carson Wentz's. Bradley reconstructed the PCL. Maragos' lawyers argued that Bradley saw damage to the meniscus, the shock absorber inside the knee, and left it alone. Rehabilitation was then supervised through 2018 by physicians from Rothman Orthopaedics, the practice that served as the Eagles' team doctors, at the club's NovaCare Complex. An MRI in May 2018 showed the injury getting worse. According to the trial evidence, the rehab was advanced anyway, including running on dry land, and Maragos' complaints of pain were treated as a normal part of recovery.

The case went to trial in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas before Judge Charles J. Cunningham III in January 2023, starting the day after the Eagles beat the 49ers in the NFC championship game. Dion G. Rassias and Jill Johnston of The Beasley Firm tried it for Maragos, with Peter J. Flowers of Meyers & Flowers as co-counsel. Jurors were shown MRIs, chart notes, surgical video, and a photograph taken from inside the knee. Nick Foles, Trey Burton, and Jordan Hicks testified for their former teammate. Foles told the jury Maragos was at the peak of his game at 31 and intended to keep playing. The defense argued the meniscus was stable, that surgery would have done more harm than good, and that a later weight room incident caused the damage.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours. On February 13, 2023, it returned $43,500,000, apportioning roughly $29.2 million to Bradley and roughly $14.3 million to Rothman. Maragos and his wife, Serah, cried in the courtroom, then hugged the jurors in the City Hall hallway.

Rothman appealed. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the verdict in an opinion reported on September 3, 2024. President Judge Anne E. Lazarus wrote that the Rothman doctors who supervised and continued to encourage rehabilitation over complaints of pain and discomfort violated the standard of care, and the court rejected Rothman's argument that the award was excessive. Court records show no appeal filed on Bradley's behalf. Rothman ended its decades long partnership with the Eagles, citing malpractice risk.

There was one more chapter. In January 2025, Rothman sued the defense firm that had represented it at trial, O'Brien & Ryan, alleging that its lawyers failed to paper a verbal agreement to settle for $1 million. Rothman says it paid Maragos more than $16 million. Rassias said The Beasley Firm denies everything in that pleading.