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This comes for the City News Service wire services:
Former USC defensive end Armond Armstead, who filed a lawsuit alleging team doctors gave him painkillers that caused a heart attack and damaged his potential as an NFL player, tentatively settled the part of his case against a pharmaceutical company for $20,000.
Armstead, 24, sued USC in August 2012, alleging that Dr. James Tibone and other USC doctors irresponsibly treated him while he played for the Trojans, requiring him to take Toradol several times without informing him of the possible side effects.
SportsPharm Pharmaceuticals sold the drug Toradol to USC, according to his court papers.
Attorneys for the pharmacy company announced the tentative settlement in court papers filed Jan. 2 and are asking for a judge’s approval. The remainder of the case involving the other defendants is scheduled for trial March 23.
Armstead played three seasons for USC from 2008-10, starting 17 games and making 59 tackles. He was not medically cleared to play for the Trojans in 2011 because of a training incident.
Armstead played with the Grey Cup-winning Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League in 2012. The Argonauts released him in January 2013, and he signed with the New England Patriots later the same month. He retired from the NFL team last July.
It's sad to hear the case of what happened to Armond Armstead because he had such tremendous potential and was forced to retire last year due to complications believed to stem from the heart attack he suffered while at USC. There should be some legitimate concerns about the USC doctors and how they were treating players at the time. Hopefully, those issues have been corrected since this incident.
It seems utterly ridiculous that a doctor could just ignore the warning labels because he didn't believe them. That type of rogue medical practice is supposed to be something you read about from centuries past or in undeveloped countries, not in Los Angeles in current days.