Brown Suing NFL For $200M

Former Cleveland Browns OL Orlando Brown filed a $200 million lawsuit against the NFL on Wednesday, claiming his career was ended by eye injuries sustained from a penalty flag thrown by a referee.

Brown's complaint charges the league failed "to properly supervise and enforce rules that flags be properly weighted and thrown in a proper fashion," said lawyer Clifford J. Stern, who said he signed the complaint.

A starting offensive tackle for most of his seven-year NFL career, Brown was with Cleveland when he was injured. In a Dec. 19, 1999 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, referee Jeff Triplette threw his penalty flag and it hit Brown's right eye.

Brown went to the sideline, then came back on the field and pushed Triplette to the ground. Brown was ejected from the game and widely criticized after shoving Triplette. He was suspended indefinitely by commissioner Paul Tagliabue, but the suspension was lifted the following March.

Brown never played again and was cut by the Browns in September 2000. But he was paid for the first three games of the season.

"At the time, Orlando was probably one of the highest paid lineman in the NFL," Stern said. Brown had a six-year, $27 million contract at the time, from which he collected a $7.5 million signing bonus.

The lawsuit was filed in state Supreme Court in the Bronx, and copies will be distributed at a news conference with attorney Johnnie Cochran on Thursday.

Stern said Brown, 30, can never play football again because "any kind of substantial contact to the head would cause an inalterable change in his ability to see. He would go blind."

Brown has said he still feels pain and sees white flashes whenever he exerts himself, and that he didn't learn of nerve damage and damage to the viscous in his right eye until doctors in New York examined him.

Stern added that Brown is particularly sensitive to the loss of sight because his father, who has glaucoma, is blind.

"We are aware of the lawsuit," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. "The play was an unfortunate accident and the injury to the player was totally inadvertent."

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