Another Ereck Plancher...???

The NCAA and Rice University were sued by the parents of a former student who died two years ago after drinking shakes containing the nutritional supplement creatine.

Dale Lloyd ((pictured, thanks Rice University)) was a freshman defensive back for the Rice Owls football team, and had sickle-cell disease, according to the complaint filed in state court in Texas.

Creatine, which supplies energy to muscle and nerve cells, has been linked to an increased risk of rhabdomyolysis, a condition that breaks down muscle fibers and releases harmful substances in the bloodstream of people with the disease.

The sickle-cell trait is found in one in 12 African Americans and can be diagnosed with a blood test, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Rice failed to adequately screen black athletes, including Lloyd, his parents said in the complaint filed in Harris County District Court in Houston.

``The NCAA requires a physical that tests for any number of different things,'' Mark Lanier, an attorney for parents Dale and Bridgette Lloyd, said in an interview. ``We want a policy in place that guarantees every black athlete will be tested for sickle cell.''

Lloyd and other team members were given creatine shakes on September 24, 2006, and then ordered to run 16 individual 100-yard sprints, according to the complaint. His parents claim the Rice coaching staff ordered other players not to help Lloyd after he began having trouble breathing.

Lloyd collapsed on the field after practice and never regained consciousness, dying the next day, according to the complaint.

The NCAA didn't do enough to address known dangers from the sickle-cell trait and rhabdomyolysis, and failed to warn member colleges and universities, according to the complaint. Lloyd's parents are seeking unspecified damages for pain and suffering, medical and funeral bills and loss of earnings.

Lanier, a Houston-based lawyer who won a $253 million jury award from Merck & Co. over its Vioxx painkiller, said the Lloyd suit is mostly about changing policy. While Rice has started doing voluntary testing, the NCAA has made no such changes in the past two years, even though more than half of college athletes are black, Lanier said.

Rice University spokesman B.J. Almond said the school hadn't yet been served with the suit and declined to comment. Officials at the Indianapolis-based NCAA didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

The case is Dale Lloyd v. William Marsh Rice University, 2008-56506, Judicial District of Harris County, Texas (Houston).

Moisekapenda Bower's work from the Houston Chronicle is in blue...

Bower's piece also tells us that former Rice, and now Tulsa Head Coach, Todd Graham has been named as a defendant as well as Head Trainer Clint Haggard, team physicians Thomas O. Clanton and Leland A. Winston, and performance enhancement coach Yancy McKnight also along with Optimal Nutrition Systems and Cytosport- the manufacturers of the supplement.

Mark Berman's work from Fox 26 in Houston is in blue...

The video is required viewing...

The Orlando Sentinel has also picked up the trail and compares the case to UCF freshman Ereck Plancher and his death while participating in off-season conditioning drills. It was later revealed that Plancher, too, was diagnosed with sickle cell trait.

Graham declined comment through University of Tulsa contacts.
Rusty Hardin will represent Rice University.

Let the fireworks begin...and do not be surprised if a class-action suit rises against the NCAA in the near future if these forces unite under one flag...

((HT: Bloomberg News and SBN Daily))