Injury Cost NFL $25 million

December nineteenth, nineteen eighty nine Browns for playing another terrible game as there were a new expansion franchise. When something absolutely unbelievable happens, one of those wrong places, wrong time, when a false start occurs, the referee downs the flag unbeknownst to Orlando Brown, the right tackle for the Browns, that flag is going to be right for him. It's him in the eye and Orlando goes and knocks down. The official gets dejected from the game, gets suspended by the league, and later we find out because of this flag in this instant, it was Blind losing millions of dollars, essentially derailing his promising career. Doing us to day as we go back and see this insane accident that shows that sometimes eight it's cool todate on daily such history. Welcome to Dandy sports history. I mean the rees m in Porte's This Week guy listening to I Go Blind a Lot by Rudy and I'm sorry related. So, who was ORLANDA Brown? You may have heard this name this song is actually playing in the league, but he was playing before his son, So he grew up in the DC area, he grew up his understand he grew to be six feet seven inches in over three colonels. He got so big that he got the nickname Soups. He was just a massive, massive person, and he got lucky enough to get a scholarship to South Carolina. Even though he had a pretty good career there, he went undrafted, but because of his size he would get signed by the Cleveland Browns in nineteen eighty three. Played three seasons there until he moved with the team to Baltimore until nineteen eighty eight, and then amazingly, the Browns came back. So the Browns came back in as ampansion team in nineteen ninety nine and they signed for Landa Brown as a free agent, giving him a twenty seven million dollar contract over five years. That's a lot of money, especially back in nineteen ninety nine, but as with most expansion franchises, it was tough. He went from a struggling team for the first Browns to a struggling new team with the Ravens, to another struggling team. He was a decent player, he started over one hundred games in his career, but he also was part of a lot of bad teams and unfortunately, towards the end of the season in nineteen eighty nine, in Week fourteen, the Cleveland Browns were hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars, who at the time were very good. They were twelve and one at the time and the Browns were two and twelve, basically two opposites of the spectrum. But this game is not remembered. For the game, I remember for one moment that sell seems crazy that happened. So in the middle of this game, the official Jeff Tripley, who had been an official in the UNFL SIS nineteen ninety six, and she's moved up in the ranks, And honestly, he was just every day ref who makes mistakes and refs throwing flags wasn't always a thing. It actually started back at Youngstown State where they were playing Oklahoma City University in nineteen forty one, where they used to use horns and whistles as the main signal for an infraction. But this actually helped fans and coaches see that there was an actual infraction and would come back to it if there was, so it would get broader use in nineteen forty eight when it would get used in an actual NFL game. Now, at first they were actually red and white flags and then a yellow flag as it was more visible. Now they're actually made of a synthetic fabric that's very durable and it can withstand the weather in constant use and has a small pouch at the end that's weighted with metal pellets or lead shot. That used to be weighted with metal pellets, but they changed after an incident and used safer alternatives to keep people involved in the game safer. It's usually about it and they just pull it out and throw it. That's what they used to do because you just take it, throw it, and you watch else is going on. Now they're more taught to just drop it or have it near where they are and not actually throw it, because that happened in nineteen ninety nine. We go back to this game. The Browns are on offense and there's a false start. It's not Orlando Brown, but he starts to move as if the play is still going because he's in that mode and his defensive end is also still running, so he's still protecting his quarterback, not giving a free shot. You don't know what the flag is. The whistle is being blown, but it takes a while for guys to slow down. So as he turns following his defender, you see a flag fly and disappear right into his helmet and hits him in the right eye. Now, at this time, it was the metal pellets in the flag which traveling through the air, and if they hitch in the right spot, it can hurt, and Orlando Brown was visibly hurt. He rips off his helmet, He's stumbling around, He's yelling at Jeff Triplett, who threw the flag, as he's visibly upset. Which would be a scary moment. Imagine this massive of six seven, three hundred and fifty pounds man coming at you, even though you're a ref. It would take a lot of people to stop him, and it did take a lot of people to stop him. The sidelines asked him to settle down, slow down, because honestly, most people did not know what happened. They just see him mad at the ref, going at the ref, pushing him down, and of course he was ejected in the league immediately suspended him, find him everything, and then later the NFL finds out with all of us that Brown's actually having to go to the hospital and being treated for a right eye condition. Now, but Even though this happened, the NFL still suspended him that same day. Though that they suspended him indefinitely, they learned that he was also in the hospital as there was new bleeding in his eye, and officially Orlando Brown went blind. So the NFL took back its suspension and fine because it was a crazy incident. It wasn't that he had an outburst for no reason. He went blind because of this, and he would miss the following three seasons and be cut by the team because of this instance, because he was blind and could not compete. And so because of this well, a couple of years later on had to sue the NFL for two hundred million dollars saying the officials were negligent in how they threw the flag, cutting short his career. Now this would actually be settled outside of court because he also missed out a million of dollars and got a twenty five million dollars, so other not two hundred million, but at least it made up for most of the contract that he missed out all because his contract with the Browns was void, So all that money he signed for he only got a little bit of it because he only played one season, so they did make him whole money wise, but it was not the end for him. In two thousand and three, he was able to work with rehab and get his site back enough to join the Baltimore Ravens, making a comeback, and crazily enough, he was so good at the time and they were so desperate. He actually started a game against Oakland Raiders on both offense and defensive line in one game, which is crazy but shows you just being a massive person can't get you pretty good. He officially did retire, so it gave him a ten year career, which is very good, but he also missed out on three seasons that he could have been making even more money, contributing and maybe been a part a team that could have won championship, which he unfortunately did not get. And after he was done, he was actually trying to become a businessman. He used that money he got from his great size and his great abilities to start a fat Burger franchise in Maryland, though it did not go very well and in two thousand and nine he actually got arrested and charged with third degree burgerley and destruction of property. Now this was a domestics dispute between him and his ex wife, and the charges were later dropped, and he did end up having five kids, two daughters and three sons. One of them is Orlando Brown Junior, who currently is a tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals, who, just like his dad, is a massive person six', eight three hundred and fifty, pounds WHO i just it just amazes me people can be like. That but unfortunately For Orlando Brown, senior he was found dead in His baltimore townhouse On september twenty, third twenty, eleven due to complications with, diabetes and so sadly he died at the age of, forty missing out on lots of things with his families and his future and seeing his son make it to THE nfl And Jeff, triplett well what happened to. Him he continued to be a refun til twenty, seventeen and he continued to make other, mistakes but he did change how they make the flags because they made him a softer. Material and they also instructed and taught reps now to not throw the flag but instead just kind of tossed it down to the ground near their feet because we don't need to see the flag. Flying we just need to see that there's a flag on the, field and that change really is because Of Jeff Jeft. Triplett but this one moment changed his, life made his life in the headlines along With Orlando, brown and changed the. GAME a small, change but. One if you watch, today you'll notice no flags actually go. Flying flags aren't thrown like commentators will always say that they threw the. Flag, no they gently hostage to the. Ground and it's always moments like, this small changes that give us the sports that we love. TODAY i want to thank you for listening To Today's Daily Sports. History if you like, this please make sure you follow and subscribe wherever you're. Listening that way you do not miss an episode and come. Back that, way you don't miss an episode and continue to learn about sports. History and we'll see you on the next. One