30 former Ohio State athletes, including NFL stars, join sex abuse case against university

Thirty former Ohio State University football players, among whom were more than twelve former NFL players, joined the class action lawsuit brought by other former Ohio State athletes who alleged that they were sexually abused by campus doctor Richard Strauss decades ago.

Former OSU wrestler Mike DiSabato announced on Thursday that many well-known former university athletes, such as Al Washington, Ray Ellis, and Keith Ferguson, had joined their fellow former Buckeyes in the legal battle, NBC News reported.

Attorney Rocky Ratliff, a former university wrestler and one of the people who was allegedly sexually abused by Strauss, who is currently suing the school, said on Thursday that he is representing the 30 football players who are accusing Strauss of sexually abusing them.

“They signed up under me, but eventually they will be part of the class action lawsuit,” he said, according to NBC News.

Among the NFL teams for which former OSU athletes played were the Chicago Bears, the Dallas Cowboys, the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Browns, and the San Diego Chargers (now the Los Angeles Chargers), the news source reported.

Washington, who runs a Columbus-based private insurance company, told the news outlet before the Thursday announcement that playing football is about “encountering obstacles,” so when the alleged sexual abuse happened, he didn’t want to tell anyone because he didn’t want that to “defeat” him.

“I’ve been living with this a long time, and it’s time to settle this once and for all,” the former New York Jets player said. “I love Ohio State, but I want Ohio State to take some accountability for what happened to us.”

Washington and other former OSU football players alleged that Strauss abused them after deceiving them because he told them that they were required to go through a physical exam before being allowed to play for the university, according to the news source.

Washington said he learned about the sexual abuse cases of other former players and the lawsuit against the university several years after DiSabato alleged in 2018 that Strauss sexually abused him and hundreds of other athletes and that the university didn’t do anything about it, even though the officials knew that Strauss was allegedly abusing the students.

Washington didn’t want to join the legal fight right away because he didn’t want to destroy his son’s career by doing so, since he was a linebackers coach for the university at the time.

“I didn’t want him to be penalized for something that affected me,” he said, NBC News reported.

Since his son is now a linebackers coach for the Miami Dolphins, Washington thought it would be safe for him to join the lawsuit.

The university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson responded to the recent news in a statement, saying that the OSU “has sincerely and persistently tried to reconcile with survivors, including former football student-athletes, through monetary and non-monetary means, including settlements, counseling services, and other medical treatment,” according to the news source.

The university and its former president have previously publicly apologized “to each person who endured” sexual abuse by Strauss, the news source reported. Even though the university has settled with 17 survivors, including some former football players, for more than $61 million since 2018, according to Benjamin, OSU is still dealing with 236 men who allege that they were abused by Strauss.

An independent investigation sponsored by the OSU revealed that Strauss, who allegedly committed suicide in 2005, sexually abused hundreds of men, among whom were at least 177 male athletes and students, from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s. The investigation also discovered that the university coaches and administrators knew about the constant sexual abuses, but didn’t do anything to stop Strauss.

The former wrestlers who joined the lawsuit also alleged that U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who coached them more than two decades ago at the OSU from 1986 to 1994, failed to stop the abuse from happening, according to another report by NBC News.

Jordan previously said that he didn’t know about the abuse.