Jury: NCAA Not To Blame In Former USC Football Player’s Death

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A Los Angeles jury has rejected a claim by the widow of a former USC football player who said the NCAA failed to protect him from repeated head trauma that led to his death. The jury found Tuesday that the NCAA was not negligent in the death of Matthew Gee. Lawyers for the widow of Gee, a linebacker on the 1990 Rose Bowl-winning squad, say he endured an estimated 6,000 hits as a college athlete. They say this caused permanent brain damage and led to cocaine and alcohol abuse, which eventually killed him at age 49. The NCAA said it had nothing to do with his death.