$4.75 Million Settlement With University of California Over Cal Football Player's Death After Workout

Ted Agu, a 21-year-old defensive lineman and pre-med student at the University of California, Berkeley, died on Feb. 7, 2014, shortly after an off-season conditioning workout outside Cal's Memorial Stadium. He carried sickle cell trait, a blood abnormality that experts believe can be fatal under extreme exertion. Cal's doctors and coaches had known of the condition since he redshirted his freshman year in 2010.

His parents sued the university, arguing that Agu should never have been put through such a strenuous workout. Teammates testified in depositions that they were told to run up and down a steep asphalt hill 10 times while holding a rope together, a drill they had never done before. They said Agu struggled visibly, fell to his knees several times and collapsed into a fetal position partway up the hill on his final lap, and that no trainer or coach came to his aid when he went down earlier.

Those accounts differed sharply from what campus officials first told the public and the coroner's office, which was that the workout was routine and staff helped as soon as he struggled. The testimony led to a rare amendment of the official cause of death, from a common enlarged heart condition to 'exercise collapse associated with sickle cell trait,' with cardiac hypertrophy listed as a secondary condition. Lawyers for the family contended that the medical examiner had not originally received all of the relevant police and medical records from the university.

About three months before the case resolved, University of California attorneys admitted liability in court papers, stating that negligence by Cal officials was a substantial factor in Agu's death and that no other person or entity, including Agu himself, was responsible.

In April 2016 the two sides announced a $4.75 million settlement. It also required changes to Cal athletics. Coaches may no longer use high-risk physical activity as punishment, and superiors must review workout and conditioning plans. Coaches and team doctors must receive more education on sickle cell trait and its complications. Workouts are to be held only when staff have a direct line of sight to the athletes, a practice Cal began after Agu's death, and a memorial display for Agu in the football team's home locker room is to be kept permanently intact.

Steve Yerrid, one of the attorneys who represented the family, said they were never going to accept just money. The university said it was glad to have reached a resolution with the family. The reforms bind Berkeley only, although UC officials said they were sharing the new standards with athletic departments on other campuses.