I first wrote about Kolby Listenbee’s lawsuit here. He is suing Texas Christian University because he claims the football staff, including the head coach, bullied him into playing even though he was hurt. Mr. Listenbee was recently cut by the Indianapolis Colts. A website, frogswire.com then posted a satirical post suggesting Mr. Listenbee is fragile and made of glass. Listenbee lashed out in a tweet accusing the TCU Horned Frog fans of being fake fans. His tweet claims that TCU fans only support the team when it is winning. He later deleted that tweet.

Frowgswire appears to be an independent website devoted to Horned Frog sports. See the frogswire post here.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a difficult lawsuit for the plaintiff. Mr. Listenbee is trying to argue the coaches’ conduct toward him harmed his athletic ability. But, here he is competing for a spot on a professional football team. Too, he is basically suing football for being football. To some degree, all coaches apply pressure to players to play with some injuries. To win his lawsuit, Mr. Listenbee will have to show that the TCU coaches went beyond the normal conduct of the average football coach.

A few years ago, Coach Mike Leach was fired by Texas Tech University in part because he sent a player suffering from a concussion to go stand in a dark shed on the practice field. And, of course, many years ago, the famous coach, Woody Hayes was fired after he struck a player. In every field or industry, the norm will vary. Compared to these two cases, the TCU coaching staff was relatively benign. Mr. Listenbee will have to have something better than simple verbal pressure or a guilt trip.

Full disclosure: I graduated from TCU with the class of 1980. Yes, it is true that attendance at games is way up compared to the late 1970’s. But, his lawsuit is not about the fans. It is about football.