Dozens of NFL veterans joined a $61M lawsuit over decades of predatory abuse at Ohio State, but their reason for staying silent is tragic

Thirty former Ohio State University football players, including more than a dozen who went on to play in the NFL, have officially joined the class action lawsuit brought by other ex-OSU students. This legal action alleges they were sexually abused decades ago by campus doctor Richard Strauss. It’s a significant development in what has been an eight-year battle to get OSU to pay damages over claims it failed to protect students from Strauss.

While former college wrestlers have largely led the charge until now, this new group brings prominent former Buckeye football players into the fold. We’re talking about names like Al Washington, Ray Ellis, and Keith Ferguson, all three of whom went on to play professional football. Former OSU wrestler Mike DiSabato shared this news.

According to NBC News, Attorney Rocky Ratliff, who is also a former OSU wrestler and one of the Strauss survivors suing the school, confirmed that he’s representing these 30 football players who have signed engagement letters to join the lawsuit he’s affiliated with. He noted that while they’ve signed up under him, they will eventually become part of the larger class action.

It’s wild that 177 victims were confirmed and yet the fight continues

The men in this group played for a range of NFL teams, including the Chicago Bears, the Dallas Cowboys, the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Browns, and the former San Diego Chargers. Al Washington, who later played for the New York Jets, shared his deeply personal reasons for waiting to come forward. “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 said.

“But I’ve been living with this a long time, and it’s time to settle this once and for all.” Washington, who now runs a private insurance company in Columbus, Ohio, also explained that he became aware of the full extent of the Strauss abuse allegations and the legal actions against OSU several years after DiSabato went public in 2018. DiSabato had alleged that Strauss sexually abused him and hundreds of other athletes and that the school was aware but did nothing to stop him.

Such betrayals of trust by authority figures are increasingly common, as seen in the case of a coach facing charges for “deviant” acts with a student. However, Washington hesitated to join the lawsuit because he didn’t want to jeopardize the career of his son, also named Al Washington, who was then a linebackers coach at OSU and is now a linebackers coach for the Miami Dolphins. “I didn’t want him to be penalized for something that affected me,”

Washington said. Like the other men suing the school, Washington and the former OSU football players allege that Strauss sexually abused them. They claim this occurred under the guise of giving them the physicals required before being allowed to play for the university. Washington also expressed that he loves Ohio State but wants the university to take some accountability for what happened to them. In response to this latest development, OSU spokesperson Benjamin Johnson issued a statement.

He said the university “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.” The university and its former president have previously apologized publicly “to each person who endured” abuse at Strauss’s hands.

Ohio State has been battling Strauss-related lawsuits in the Southern District of Ohio since 2018. As of April 15, the school had settled with 317 survivors, including some former football players, for more than $61 million, Johnson confirmed. Despite these settlements, the university still faces five active lawsuits in the Southern District of Ohio from 236 men who allege Strauss abused them.

An independent investigation sponsored by the university, conducted by the Perkins Coie law firm and concluded in May 2019, found that Strauss, who died by suicide in 2005, preyed on hundreds of men from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s.

The investigation concluded that Strauss sexually abused at least 177 male athletes and students, and that coaches and administrators knew about it for two decades but failed to stop him. One of those former coaches accused by DiSabato and numerous other former OSU wrestlers of doing nothing to stop Strauss from abusing them was Rep. Jim Jordan, who was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1986 to 1994.

Jordan has repeatedly denied any knowledge of what Strauss allegedly did to the athletes, and he is not named in the Perkins Coie report.