Staph in the NFL: Who is to blame?

Earlier this week, former kicker Lawrence Tynes announced that he is suing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for $20 million. He is accusing the team of neglecting to maintain sanitary team facilities, leading to the spread of an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph called MRSA, which infected Tynes and two other players.

Tynes is the first player to sue, but he is far from the first player to contract staph from an NFL locker room. Five St. Louis Rams got the infection in 2003. Six Cleveland Browns got it between 2005 and 2008. When, in 2008, Kellen Winslow II was diagnosed with staph for the second time, he accused the team of (1) unclean facilities and (2) trying to cover up his diagnosis. Winslow was suspended one game, and since then, no active player has spoken up about it.

The issue of staph in the NFL brings up an interesting question: is the spread of bacterial infection inevitable in an environment where scraped-up, sweaty, spitting, snorting, high-fiving men share showers, lockers, and benches? Or, as Winslow and Tynes have claimed, are facilities managers and trainers failing to take the necessary steps to at least curtail the spread of infectious bacteria?

In defense of team employees, staph is a disease that could still spread among players even if team facilities were sterile as a hospital and players showered in disinfectant. Staph is a bacteria that lives on the skin. The slightest scrape or turf burn could allow the bacteria to enter the bloodstream, where it often does irreversible damage.

Winslow and Tynes may have a point, however. Our best evidence is from when the Rams reached out the Center for Disease Control to investigate how staph was spreading and what they could do to prevent it. Researchers pointed out several shortcomings on the team’s behalf. Players would share towels during games. They weren’t required to shower before hitting the communal whirlpool. And too often, team trainers weren’t equipped with rubbing alcohol and failed to cover up cuts.

Whether or not conditions have improved significantly between 2003, when the Rams study was conducted, and 2013, when Tynes and two teammates contracted MRSA, teams will now certainly do their utmost to sanitize their facilities. The threat of a multi-million dollar lawsuit should be enough to scare any owner into making some substantial improvements.