Reggie Bush to Carry Through with Lawsuit Against St. Louis Stadium

His team might not have made the playoffs, but San Francisco 49ers running back Reggie Bush could be in for a battle of a different ilk this offseason. Bush has vowed to go through with his threat to sue the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission over a season-ending knee injury he sustained at the Edward Jones Dome.

In Week 8, Bush and the Niners travelled to St. Louis for a clash with their division rival. There aren’t many offensive players that come out of a meeting with the Rams’ dangerous front seven unscathed, but it was the concrete surrounding the playing field that was the cause of Bush’s injury.

After being forced out of bounds of a routine play, Bush’s momentum carried him across the turf and onto the exposed concrete behind the players’ benches. He took a nasty fall and immediately began to favor his knee. In the following days, it was announced that Bush would not play again in 2015. A week after the incident, he decided to sue.

On Wednesday, a St. Louis CVC spokesperson claimed the party was “yet to be served” and was therefore “unable to comment further at this time.” But with Bush having filed the suit that same day – in which he describes the surface as a “concrete ring of death” – it appears the RB’s intentions are clear.

Bush’s injury is not the first time the out-of-date Dome has come under fire – sometimes quite literally. One week prior, Cleveland quarterback Josh McCown was similarly unable to stay upright on the slippery concrete, running shoulder-first into a railing and effectively ending his season. In week 3, a faulty pyrotechnics display during the team entrance set a small section of the field on fire, resulting in a lengthy delay prior to kickoff.

Since the accident, the NFL has enacted a new rule, providing that “every horizontal surface within the stadium that a player may reasonably expect to contact during the game should be non-slip when contacted by a cleated shoe.” Regardless of where the Rams play football next season, one would hope this same mistake won’t happen again.