((HT: Boston Herald/Fargen))
Former New England Patriots star defensive back Tebucky Jones ((pictured, thanks Ted Fitzgerald/Boston Herald)) has filed a lawsuit claiming team doctors and other parties failed to diagnose his career-ending 2006 preseason knee injury, effectively ruining his pro career, the Herald has learned.
Jones, 34, claims that Dr. Thomas J. Gill IV, head physician for the Patriots and also the Red Sox [team stats] medical director, and Dr. Bertram Zarins, another Patriots physician, did not inform him he suffered a severe tear to his knee ligament against the Washington Redskins on Aug. 26, 2006, at Gillette Stadium.
According to his suit, filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, Jones claims that “the failure to diagnose his injuries led to his wrongful release by the New England Patriots and consequential loss of income.”
In an interview on Friday with the Herald, Jones said he was more sad than angry about the case, largely because he so trusted and admired the Patriots organization.
“The biggest pain is I played for three teams and I respected New England the most because I’m from New England. I got drafted from New England. I won a Super Bowl with New England. I always respected New England,” he said. “That probably hurts the most.”
Neither Gill nor Zarins, who practice at Massachusetts General Hospital, returned several calls seeking comment for this article.
The Patriots are not named in the lawsuit.
Jones was in the first year of a two-year, $1.4 million contract, with incentives to earn twice that, when he injured his right leg in the second half of the preseason game against the Redskins.
A native of New Britain, Conn., and the father of four, Jones was carried off the field as Gill and Zarins attended to him.
“It felt like I got shot,” he recalled to the Herald. “I ended up doing a front flip.”
He was treated on site, then sent to Shields MRI in Rhode Island the next day for an MRI. He said his wife drove him due to the pain.
The results of that MRI showed a chronic tear of the “anterior cruciate ligament,” or ACL, and a hamstring injury, according to Jones’ medical records, which were reviewed by the Herald.
But Jones claims that when he met with Gill and Zarins - both highly regarded orthopedic surgeons - they told him he had a hamstring injury and recommended ice and strengthening exercises.
Jones was then put on “injured reserve” by the Patriots, ending his season.
Jones told the Herald his knee pain was persistent enough that he saw Gill and Zarins again in September 2006. He was sent for another MRI at Shields. That MRI showed, in part, that Jones had a “chronic ACL tear” in addition to the hamstring injury, according to Jones’ medical records.
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