Ferentz was in charge when these workouts put 13 Iowa players in the hospital. Seems like more of a "douchebag" move than anything Franklin has ever done.
Iowa players battling muscle disorder
Jan 26, 2011
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The University of Iowa said Wednesday that 13 football players had to be hospitalized this week with a muscle disorder following grueling offseason workouts that left them with extreme soreness and discolored urine.
The players have rhabdomyolysis, a stress-induced syndrome that can damage cells and cause kidney damage and even failure in severe cases, school spokesman Tom Moore said at a news conference two days after players were hospitalized at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.
School officials said the players, whom they would not identify, were in stable condition and responding well to treatment, which includes bed rest and the administration of hydrating fluids. Moore said he did not know when the players would be discharged.
One walk-on player and two who were on scholarship quit the team following their hospitalization with rhabdomyolysis, a muscle disorder that caused discolored urine and extreme soreness, according to a report released this week by a committee appointed by President Sally Mason to investigate the injuries.
The walk-on quit before spring practice to concentrate on academics. One of the scholarship players left the team before spring practice, considered transferring and then stayed at Iowa but decided not to play football. The other completed spring practice but left the university for what the report described as unrelated personal reasons.
Iowa's infamous January workout that
hospitalized thirteen Hawkeye football players already cost them one player of the future in blue-chip recruit
Cyrus Kouandjio. As of late Tuesday night, it appears at least one present player is out the door as well: Rising senior defensive back Willie Lowe, who was stricken with rhabdomyolysis along with a dozen teammates, has requested his release from the program. To hear the way he's talking to Joe Schad, it sounds like
we might not see Lowe on the field this season at all:
I would like to be able to sit out a year, regain my strength, feel fine and play again. But I don't know. I am still down 20 pounds and I am having headaches every few days. [...] Only a few players are back to full speed that I know of.
It's grim news for a program that seems as eager to move past the incident as it was to gloss over the problem in the first place altogether. The school has cleared the hospitalized players for spring practice, but if Lowe is still this far from full strength, who else might be ailing under the radar? SB Nation's Black Heart Gold Pants
has a bad feeling about whatever news comes next:
Lowe's case may be unique; as a senior, if he felt he needed a year off to recover despite being medically cleared to play, he would either have to talk the coaches into giving him a redshirt (in a year where Iowa will be breaking in two safeties) and likely lose his chance to start in 2012, or transfer and spend his year recouperating. And as bad as the Lowe transfer is for the secondary, his comment that "only a few players are back to full speed" is even worse for the program.
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- One of 13 University of Iowa football players who were hospitalized after a high-intensity workout three years ago says his injuries were preventable but caused lasting harm, outlining his claims in the first lawsuit to stem from the incident.
Former Hawkeyes cornerback William Lowe, of Cleveland, alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday in Johnson County district court that coaches and trainers failed to properly supervise him during the Jan. 20, 2011, workout. He also says the school failed to offer medical care after he and others initially reported severe pain and symptoms, and that his injuries were aggravated because he was required to participate in additional workouts in the following days.
Lowe contends that the team was negligent in "developing and implementing a dangerous improper training program" and should have to pay unspecified damages for his pain and suffering.
Spokesmen for the athletics department and the university declined to comment about the lawsuit Tuesday.
Lowe and 12 others were hospitalized following the workout at the start of winter training. They were diagnosed with exertional rhabdomyolysis, the result of muscles breaking down and releasing proteins into the bloodstream, which can cause kidney failure.
The workout was only held about once every three years as a test of physical stamina, mental toughness and to see who "wanted to be on the team," according to an investigative committee report commissioned by the school.
The most grueling part were the 100 back squats players were asked to do at 50 percent of their most recent personal best. A study by University of Iowa doctors published last year concluded that those back squats were "significantly associated" with an increased risk of rhabdomyolysis -- with the affected players more likely to think they could complete the untimed workout despite muscle failure.
Lowe alleges in his lawsuit that he and others reported "substantial leg pain and stiffness as well as abnormally dark urine" after that workout and fatigue that was atypical. Despite such reports, Lowe says he and the others were required to participate in a mandatory intensive workout the next day focusing on their upper body muscles.
After taking the weekend off, players had another mandatory workout Jan. 24. Within hours, Lowe and others started showing up at the hospital and were diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis.
Lowe says he was released from the hospital Feb. 2, but he still suffered from weight loss, pain in his lower back and legs, headaches and high blood pressure over the next several months. The 24-year-old says he suffered mental and physical pain and anguish that has required ongoing expenses for medical care, therapy, drugs and other treatment.
