Kicker Settles Lawsuit With Bucs Over Career-Ending Toe Infection

Thursday, February 23, 2017 | 0

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have reached an undisclosed settlement with placekicker Lawrence Tynes, who sued the team for $20 million after an MRSA infection ended his career in 2013, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Lawrence Tynes

Tynes’ complaint argued that “sterile techniques were not at all times used,” and “equipment and surfaces with which multiple individuals, including Bucs players, were routinely in contact were not properly maintained, disinfected, or cleaned, if at all, at the Bucs' training facility.” 

Former trainer Todd Toriscelli and left guard Carl Nicks also contracted the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection, WorkCompCentral reported April 14, 2015.

The team settled with Nicks for $3 million.

“According to Hillsborough County court records, Tynes and the team signed off Feb. 10 on paperwork to ‘jointly stipulate and agree to dismissal’ of his lawsuit, which had progressed in the courts for two years and was scheduled for pre-trial conference in August,” the newspaper reported.

Tynes kicked for nine seasons in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Giants but never appeared for the Bucs because of the toe infection. He was signed for $905,000 for the 2013 season, was the 19th most-accurate kicker in league history and was a member of two Super Bowl-winning teams, his complaint states.