UNM failed to protect athlete, lawsuit charges
Family of ex-football player also cites NCAA over brain injuries
The family of late University of New Mexico football player Nahje Flowers, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Nov. 5, 2019, and their lawyers filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday against the NCAA, UNM and former Lobos coach Bob Davie.
The complaint says Davie neglected Flowers’ mental state, ignored doctor’s advice for him to take a break from football and “forced him to continue playing.”
The lawsuit, filed by a highprofile civil rights lawyer, says the NCAA has for decades failed to protect football players, including Flowers, across the nation from brain injuries.
The lawsuit makes nine claims, including wrongful death. The family is seeking unspecified compensatory damages, but the suit includes a claim for loss of future income from the “estate of Nahje Flowers.”
“(Flowers’ parents) are owed an apology and a
debt from Bob Davie,” said attorney Ben Crump of Tallahassee, Florida.
Crump is involved in other recent prominent cases, including representing the families of George Floyd, who was killed by police during an arrest in Minneapolis in May, and Jacob Blake, who was shot multiple times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday night.
He added that Flowers’ parents are also “owed an apology and a debt from the University of New Nexico and they are owed an apology and a debt from the NCAA because they lied to Mr. and Mrs. Flowers when they said that they would look after the health and well-being and the development of Nahje . ... We intend to make sure this family gets the apology they deserve from each of these entities and individuals and more importantly, even though there is no amount that can pay the debt that these parents are owed, we are hopeful that it will send a message that the next child who is struggling with mental health will be treated better than they treated Nahje Flowers.”
Crump and co-counsels Bob Hilliard of Texas and Mika Hilaire of California, spoke to select media during a virtual press conference from their respective sites.
Hilaire appeared to be in her office in Los Angeles with Nahje Flowers’ parents: father La’Vonte Flowers and mother Vickie Gilmore.
Hilaire tried to comfort Gilmore, who teared up as she read from a prepared statement about her son. In the background, La’Vonte Flowers held up a photo of his son, who was 21 when he was found dead in his residence on that November morning.
“I hope none of you will have to sit in my seat,” Gilmore said. “I hope none of you will have to start every single day with a hole in your heart like the one I have in mine. I hope none of you have to cry yourself to sleep unable to breathe every night knowing that your child, your beautiful, bright, talented and loving baby boy has taken his own life because he wasn’t heard. He wasn’t being listened to, and his mental and physical well-being were not prioritized.”
Nahje Flowers had battled depression in the past and in fall 2019, according to his medical history that was in the police report investigating his death. Flowers texted in a group message the morning before he was found dead that the antidepressants he was taking were not helping him, the police report says.
Flowers, a 6-foot-3, 278-pound redshirt junior defensive lineman, sought psychiatric help at UNM, the complaint says, during the football season, but no exact date is listed. He missed UNM’s football games against Wyoming (Oct. 19 in Laramie) and Hawaii (Oct. 26 in Albuquerque) because of a shoulder injury, UNM said in November. He played in the Lobos’ loss at Nevada on Nov. 2 and practiced with the team on Nov. 4
“While we do not comment directly on pending or active litigation, the mental and physical well-being of our students is of the greatest importance to The University of New Mexico, and the loss of a student is tragic and affects the entire Lobo community deeply,” said Cinnamon Blair, a UNM spokesperson, in an email. “Nahje made great contributions to UNM as a student and an athlete, and our thoughts continue to be with his family.”
Crump’s legal team said they used an independent specialist to determine that the autopsy indicated Flowers’ brain had signs of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
But signs of brain neuron deposition did not meet the diagnostic criteria for CTE, according to an autopsy report filed by medical investigator Dr. Lauren E. Dvorscak of UNM School of Medicine on Jan. 6.
The plaintiffs’ complaint includes claims that the NCAA has ignored effects of head injuries and failed to implement protocols for warning and protecting student athletes, including football players like Flowers.
Hilliard, the attorney, said that Davie overruled campus doctors’ recommendation that Flowers not play and instead insisted that he play.
“What we learned, that the UNM football program carried more weight than the health and wellbeing of their student athletes,” Hilliard said. “The consequence was inevitable and devastating to this family and to the community when Nahje, who had sought help, who did not get help, finally found no way out except to take his own life.”
Davie, who was fired in late November with two years left on his contract, made several complaints throughout his final season with the Lobos, including his concern about the availability of mental health resources for players. He sent an email to UNM president Garnett Stokes, athletic director Eddie Nuñez and deputy athletic director Dave Williams the day after Flowers died, reminding them that he made them aware of his concerns for student welfare, including mental health counseling in multiple letters, “starting on Aug. 26, 2019 and continuing through October.”
“After Tuesday’s tragedy I feel a responsibility as head football coach to once again share my concerns,” Davie wrote in an email. “I would like to make it clear that I am not making any accusation, insinuating blame to anyone, or speculating in any way that our ‘less than adequate’ counseling played a role in this devastating event.”
Michael Kennedy, a lawyer for Davie, told The Associated Press that his client hadn’t seen the lawsuit.
“But any suggestion that he overruled medical advice given to Mr. Flowers is absolutely false,” Kennedy told the AP. “Mr. Davie will respond further after he has had an opportunity to read the complaint.”
Davie’s teams went 8-28 over his final three seasons. In 2018, he was suspended for 30 days because of alleged physical abuse of players.
Crump’s legal team also accuses Davie of racism, which was alleged at the time of Davie’s suspension.
“Various white players for the Lobos during the 2019 season were given time off by coaches in order to get healthy, however, Nahje Flowers, an African American, was never permitted to take time off to get his mental state healthy,” the lawsuit states. “Coaches would override doctors’ orders and threaten Nahje Flowers to play in games that doctors specifically told him to sit out.”
Davie and UNM reached a settlement for a buyout of $825,000 to be paid over 30 months this past December. Part of the agreement signed by Stokes and Davie stipulated neither side would speak badly about the other, the Journal reported in February.
Nuñez, as well as UNM football players Teton Saltes and Tevaka Tuioti, and New Mexico State A.D. Mario Moccia in February supported a bill that would provide funds for behavioral health services at UNM and NMSU.
Nuñez had also asked the Legislature for more money for mental health in athletics, but the bill was vetoed in early 2019.
The state’s current $7 billion budget includes two $225,000 appropriations for behavioral health programs for student athletes at UNM and NMSU.