30 former Ohio State University football players, including more than a dozen who went on to play in the NFL, agreed to join a federal lawsuit against the university over the alleged sexual abuse of student-athletes decades ago by a team doctor.

According to ESPN, the men “came forward some eight years after the first lawsuit was filed because they needed to overcome the shame of revealing that they’d been sexually abused by another man and the fear of taking on the university publicly.”

ESPN shared further:

Ohio State has fought lawsuits in federal court since 2018 brought by former student-athletes against the university over its failure to stop abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss. Hundreds say they were abused by Strauss, who worked at the school from 1978 to 1998. He died in 2005.

The men have signed letters of agreement to join a lawsuit filed by other student-athletes who say they are victims of Strauss, Ratliff said.

Of the 30, only three have agreed to make their identities public, Ratliff said. They are Al Washington, Ray Ellis and Keith Ferguson, he said. All were members of the 1980 Rose Bowl team and were recruited by and played for legendary coach Woody Hayes.

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Some other former football players have settled with the school in sealed agreements that kept their names a secret, Ratliff said.

In a statement, Ohio State said it 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.”

As of April 15, the university has settled with 317 survivors for more than $61 million, and remains actively engaged in mediation, the school said.

They are “tearful and living with it,” said attorney Rocky Ratliff, who is a former Ohio State wrestler and one of the Strauss survivors suing the university, according to the outlet.

“But as this case progresses on, they see how Ohio State’s treating athletes from the university, and I think they want people to know it’s OK, even if it is male to male [sexual abuse], to come forward,” Ratliff added.

NBC News has more:

The group of men formerly played for NFL teams that include the Chicago Bears, the Dallas Cowboys, the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Browns and the former San Diego Chargers.

“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, 67, told NBC News ahead of the announcement Thursday. “But I’ve been living with this a long time, and it’s time to settle this once and for all.”

“I love Ohio State, but I want Ohio State to take some accountability for what happened to us,” said Washington, who later played for the New York Jets.

Like the other men suing the school, Washington and the other former OSU football players allege that Strauss sexually abused them under the guise of giving them the physicals they were required to undergo before they were allowed to play for OSU.

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Washington, who runs a private insurance company in Columbus, Ohio, said he became aware of the scope of the Strauss abuse allegations and the legal actions against OSU several years after DiSabato went public in 2018 with allegations that Strauss sexually abused him and hundreds of other athletes and that the school knew about it but did nothing to stop him.

But Washington hesitated to come forward 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.

 

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